


Things Left Behind

by Lampshadez



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-28
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-07-18 21:15:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7330936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lampshadez/pseuds/Lampshadez
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set years in the future: Wynonna and Waverly have their lives pretty much together.  They're still hunting revenants with BBD and trying to break the curse, while also moving forward with their lives.  What happens when someone they never expected to see again comes by the homestead?  Will Wynonna and Waverly let this stranger back into their lives?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Waverly, Wynonna, Dolls, and Nicole were all in the homestead kitchen, sitting around the table and doing research.  Wynonna had taken the house as her own and Dolls unofficially lived there.  He had his own place, still, but he was way more often at the homestead than he was there.

Wynonna was digging through a box of files in the corner when there was a knock on the door.  She looked up and Waverly waved her off.

“I’ll get it.”

“Thanks,” Wynonna called, head already back in the box.

Waverly went over and answered the door.

“Hi there,” she said.  “Are you lost?”  People very rarely came by the homestead, and when they did, it was usually a mistake.

“No,” the woman said.  There was something familiar about her, but Waverly couldn’t figure out what.  Something about her made Waverly uneasy, though.  Still, her good nature took over.

“Are you looking for Wynonna?” Waverly asked.

“You’re not Wynonna?”

“No,” Waverly offered.  She extended her hand.  She knew that if this person was coming around to the homestead on purpose, she had to be looking for an Earp.  Her revenant detector was pretty good by now, and she could swear she knew this woman from somewhere.  “I’m Wa-.”

“Willa?”

Waverly quickly pulled her hand back.  She paled.  “Waverly.  I’m sorry, do I know you?”

“Waverly,” the woman breathed.  Something about the way she said Waverly’s name made the wheels start turning in Waverly’s mind.  She was starting to recognize her.  The woman started to look Waverly up and down, but stopped at her left hand, which was on the doorway.  “You’re married?”

Waverly looked at her hand for a second, then put it behind her back, playing at the hem of her shirt.  “Yeah.  I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name….”

“Waverly, it’s me,” the woman said.  “It’s Mom.”

Waverly stepped back.  She saw the woman respond to that, her face fell.  She stepped back more and shut the door.

Wynonna was back at the table, looking through a file, when Waverly reentered the kitchen.

“Who was that?” Wynonna asked.  “I swear, if we had more than one gas station in this town, we wouldn’t have so many people stopping here when they run out of gas.”

“No, it wasn’t someone with car trouble,” Waverly said.  “It was Mom.”

Every head in the room snapped up to look at her.  Dolls looked at Waverly, discerning in an instant her sincerity, then to Wynonna.

“What?”

“It’s Mom,” Waverly said.  “I didn’t recognize her at first.  Shit, she didn’t recognize me.  She thought I was you, or Willa.”

Wynonna stood up.  She walked with purpose toward the door.

Dolls set about shutting all the open case files, guessing that they weren’t going to get much more work done and they might have company.

Nicole stood and went to Waverly’s side.

“Wave…”

“I need your sweater,” Waverly said.

Nicole looked confused but took it off anyway.  “Yeah, sure.”

Her sweaters were loose enough on Nicole, so they were always pretty baggy on Waverly.

Waverly took it gratefully.  “She saw my ring, she knows I’m married.  I don’t want her to know about the baby.”

Dolls had been trying not to eavesdrop, or at least look like he wasn’t eavesdropping, but he looked up at that.  Waverly was a little over four months in, so she looked pregnant but not hugely so.  Wynonna, Doc, Dolls, everyone in their lives knew about it.  Still, clearly, she didn’t want to take any chances about accidentally revealing it.

Nicole understood.  Waverly very rarely talked about her mother, and when she did it was clear – she didn’t expect her to come back and she would be fine if she never did.  Waverly had never considered the notion that their mother would come back, she had been resigned to her absence for almost her entire life.  So, however Waverly wanted to play her return, Nicole was cool with.

“Wave, we can go,” Nicole said.  “Let’s just go.”

“No, I want to know why she’s here,” Waverly said, voice an odd combination of detached and pissed.  Nicole caught it and took Waverly’s hand quickly.  “I’m good,” Waverly said to her, smiling a bit and giving her hand a squeeze.

She heard the front door close and released Nicole’s hand.

“So, uh, everyone,” Wynonna said.  “This is our mom, Bette.”

There was a bit of pause before Dolls stepped forward and extended his hand to her.

“Xavier Dolls, I work with Wynonna and Waverly.”

Bette shook his hand then turned to Nicole.

“Nicole Haught,” she said.  “I’m…I work with them, as well.”

Waverly shot her a bit of an apologetic and appreciative glance.

“So,” Wynonna said, clapping her hands together.  “Tea, anyone?”

**-WE-**

They sat at the table, Bette at one end and Waverly at the other, as far as she could be while still being at the table.  Nicole sat next to her, but not too closely.  Dolls was on Waverly’s other side, and next to him was Wynonna.

Wynonna had just finished serving tea so she sat.

“Where have you been?”

“I don’t know,” Bette said.  “I don’t…I don’t know how to explain it.  I just forgot about you girls.”

Wynonna’s eyebrows went up at that.  Her jaw dropped, her eyes got teary.

Waverly looked at her sister then back to Bette.  “You forgot us?”

“Right after I left,” Bette said.  “There was a woman, with this ridiculous pink car.  She did something and…I don’t know.  I couldn’t remember you girls.  Then, I was at the grocery store the other day and overheard someone talking about Purgatory.  I’ve been remembering bits and pieces since then.”

“You got your memory erased?” Waverly asked.  “And it held for, what, twenty-five years?”

“It would explain why you never called or wrote,” Wynonna said.

“But not why you didn’t take us in the first place,” Waverly shot back.

Wynonna couldn’t argue with that.  The room was tense as they all waited for Bette’s reply.

“Where’s Willa?” Bette asked.  “Does she live here, too?”

“Willa’s dead.”

Bette’s hand flew to cover her mouth.  She really looked like she didn’t know, or didn’t remember.

“Waverly…” Wynonna warned.

“She’s died twice, sort of,” Waverly said.  “And Daddy died.  And you weren’t here for any of it.”

“Waverly!”

“How?” Bette asked.

Waverly looked to Wynonna.

Wynonna looked down, took a breath.  “Daddy died in an attack on the homestead,” she explained, hoping Waverly wouldn’t correct her.  She didn’t.  “Willa got taken then and we thought she died.  We had a funeral and everything.  But she came back fifteen years later and she, uh.  She died for real that time.”

“How?”

Wynonna wasn’t quite able to answer.

Dolls cleared his throat.  “She got mixed up with the wrong people,” he supplied.

Bette looked toward Nicole.  “Where do you all work?”

Nicole opened her mouth to answer, but Waverly cut her off.

“Why didn’t you take us with you?” Waverly asked.

Bette and Nicole both looked at Waverly, who had a bit of fire in her eyes.  It was obvious that Waverly did not like Bette talking to Nicole, and everyone but Bette knew the connection between Waverly and Nicole that served as the reason why.  For those in the know, it was a bit frightening.

Bette looked a bit taken aback at the directness of the question.

So, Waverly continued.  “Fine, you got your memory erased.  You’d be surprised how often that happens.  It doesn’t explain why you left us with Daddy.  What he did to you was awful but you weren’t the only one he was bad to.”

“I’m so sorry, Waverly,” Bette said, and Waverly felt herself get chills when she said her name.  She turned to Wynonna.  “Wynonna, I’m sorry.  I don’t know how to explain it.  Maybe when you have kids you’ll understand.”

The air pretty much left the room at that point.  Something in Waverly snapped, or broke, or something.  The three other people in the room could guess where this was about to go, and it wasn’t going to be pretty.

“I’ll understand how to leave them behind?” Waverly asked.  Her voice was rising, taking on a bitter and almost defensive tone.

“No, not exactly-.”

“How to leave them in an abusive home?  That’s what I should learn?”

“You girls were better without me.”

“Bullshit!” Waverly said.  As far she was concerned, she and Bette were the only people in the room.  She could see Nicole’s concerned but stoic look, Dolls’ hand on Wynonna’s thigh, Wynonna’s lock-jawed stare into her cup of tea.  But she didn’t care.  “Look at what Willa went through, or Wynonna.  We’re not better off without you.”

Wynonna moved like she was going to look up at Waverly, but she didn’t.

“But not you?” Bette asked.  “You’re better off without me?”

“I was four,” Waverly said.  “I barely remember you.  I guess we’re even on that front, then, eh?”

“I’m back because I want to try again,” Bette said.  “I know I missed a lot.  I may have missed my chance with Willa, but you two are still here.  I want to be a part of your lives.  I want to know what you do, I want to know what you like.  Waverly, you’re _married_.  I want to meet your husband.”  Nicole’s jaw clenched tighter.  “I want to be part of this family again.”

“Were you going to come back for us?” Waverly asked.  Wynonna looked up at that, looking Waverly over and seeing that she wasn’t okay, and then turning to Bette for her answer.  “Honestly, no bullshit.  If you hadn’t met the witch with the pink car, if you hadn’t had your memories erased.  Would you have come back for us?”

Bette didn’t immediately answer, she just looked from Waverly to Wynonna.

“Would you have?” Wynonna pressured.

Bette shook her head.  “I don’t know.  I didn’t think that far, I just wanted out.”

“Yeah, I get the feeling,” Waverly said, standing.  “I should go.  Wynonna, I’m sorry.”

Wynonna nodded.  “It’s fine, baby girl.”

“Waverly…” Bette tried.

Nicole stood, too.  “Nice to meet you, Bette.”

She put her hand on Waverly’s lower back as she passed her and walked with her out of the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty so I've got a few chapters in mind but not a concrete ending. I was planning on writing during the hiatus, then the finale aired and I mostly write Waverly and now I have no idea what to do with her being possessed, hence this fic being set way in the future. I'm also kind of obsessed with the idea of their mom coming back (I'm thinking yeah Waverly's maybe not an Earp, but she, Wynonna, and Willa probably all have the same mother?). I obviously think Waverly would be a bit cold (that's probably an understatement), especially given how she reacted when Willa came back.  
> I also really like the idea that this is how they'd move on with their lives. I think Wynonna would stick around in Purgatory because 1) she's the heir, she can't really leave the Triangle for too long and leave the revenants running wild and 2) it gives her a sense of purpose, finally, and a feeling of home that she has reclaimed over time. I think Waverly (and Nicole, for that matter) wouldn't make their whole lives BBD. Waverly especially spent so much of her life working on the curse and I think she's come to accept that she's not the heir, that she serves them best as a consultant. In coming chapters we'll learn more about what Waverly does, and see more Wynonna/Dolls, Waverly/Nicole, all those folks individually, and Doc.  
> So, yeah! Leave a comment and please let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

Nicole walked into the living room, where Waverly was pacing.

“Here,” Nicole said.  “The doctor said a glass of wine was fine.  Hell, after a day like today, you should have as many glasses as you want.”

“We’ll start with one.”  She took the glass from Nicole and kissed her cheek.  “Thank you.”

Nicole clinked her glass to Waverly’s and took a sip.  “Want to talk about it?” she asked.  “Or just keep pacing?”

Waverly let out a little laugh.  “In case you couldn’t tell, I wasn’t really ready for her to be back.”

“On the contrary, you seemed very ready,” Nicole said.  “Seemed like you were saving up what you said for a while.”

Waverly went to sit down and Nicole followed her.

“I didn’t think I’d ever see her again.  I didn’t think I’d get to say all that.  Maybe it was harsher than it should have been.”

“No way, babe,” Nicole said.  “You have every right to be pissed.”

“Do I, though?” Waverly asked.  “I understand why she left Daddy, I do.  He was awful.  And if she did have her memory erased, of course it took her a while to find us again.”

“But you didn’t know that until today,” Nicole said.  “You’ve been walking around with this anger for twenty-five years.  It had to come out at some point.”

“Maybe not at her, though,” Waverly said.  She ran a hand through her hair.  “I just wish I knew, you know?  I wish it were simpler, that she left and didn’t want to see us.  We have no idea if she was going to come back for us or not, if she planned on keeping up with us or not.”

“She came today,” Nicole said.  “Does that count for anything?”

Nicole asked the question without judgment, without a presumption of a correct answer.

Waverly sighed.  “I don’t know.  But it should, right?”

Now Nicole shrugged.  “I don’t know.  That’s up to you.”

Waverly leaned on Nicole, putting her head on her shoulder.  “Babe, the last time a family member of mine came back from having their memories erased, they shot you.”

“Yeah, and I ended up fine.”

Waverly elbowed her in the side.  “It was terrifying.”

“I know,” Nicole sighed.  “But, it won’t happen.  Your mom isn’t Willa.”

Waverly didn’t look convinced.

“And you’re not your mom.”

Waverly sat up at that, and turned to Nicole, but didn’t speak.

“Seriously, Wave,” Nicole said.  “You’re not your parents.  We’re not them.  We’re going to be really, really good at this.”

Waverly kissed Nicole, but pulled back right after.  “I love you.  You’re my family now.  She hurt me and my sisters when she left and I don’t want her hurting anyone else that I love.  Not you, not the baby.”

“However you want to deal with her is up to you, and I’m behind you all the way,” Nicole said.  “But, who knows?  Maybe she’s different now.  She doesn’t have Ward to be afraid of anymore, none of you do.  Maybe she’s ready to have a good relationship with you two.”

Waverly sighed.  “So, what’s it like having good parents, again?”

Nicole chuckled.  This was a bit of a running joke between them.  Waverly’s and Nicole’s families couldn’t be more opposite.  Nicole’s family was incredibly supportive and together.  They were the picture perfect family – literally, like Nicole, they were all gorgeous.  And tall.  And slightly intimidating.  Waverly remembered describing them all just like that to Wynonna when she first met them.

“It’s pretty great,” Nicole said.  She pulled Waverly in and kissed her.

Waverly kissed her back, then leaned against Nicole.  “Could we just stay like this for a bit?”

“Of course.”

**-WE-**

“Where’s, uh,” Waverly began, stopping short of the m-word the next morning in Black Badge.  “Where’s Bette?”

“We got her a hotel,” Wynonna said.  “Waves, are you alright?”

Waverly nodded.  “Yeah.  Just a little caught off guard, is all.  You?”

“Same,” Wynonna said.  “But, I mean.  This is a lot for anyone, and you’re-.”

“Not made of glass,” Waverly reminded her.

Nicole laughed.  “Yeah, she really doesn’t like being treated like she’s fragile just because she’s pregnant.”

Waverly gave her a look of agreement while Wynonna gave her a bit of a glare.

“Right,” Nicole said. She cleared her throat, looked up at Dolls.  “Dolls, coffee?”

Dolls nodded.  “I could use a refill.”

They two of them headed into the kitchen.

Wynonna fiddled with the pen in her hand.  “Do you think maybe you went a bit hard on her?”

Waverly leaned back in her chair.  “Maybe,” she said finally.  “What happened after we left?”

“We talked to her, tried to figure out her story and whether it was true or not,” Wynonna said.  “Dolls and I started looking into it but it looks like it checks out.  She was in Calgary for a while after Constance got to her, then she bounced around for a bit.  We got her bank records, she was in Edmonton and Vancouver at various points, too.  She was back in Calgary most recently, when her memory started coming back.”

“Why would Constance take her memory, though?” Waverly asked.  “This is before Daddy made his deal with Bobo, and before Constance and Bobo made their deal.”

“Maybe this was the beginning of all that?” Wynonna asked.  “Maybe they saw an opportunity to get rid of her, so it’d be easier to take Willa?”

“They did love the long game.”

Wynonna nodded in agreement.  “We might never know why, though.  Bobo and Constance are gone, and they didn’t exactly keep meticulous minutes of all their evil meetings.”

“So we’ll never know if Bette’s telling the truth or not,” Waverly said.  Wynonna gave her a look.  “I know there’s proof that she was in all those places, but it doesn’t prove that she didn’t remember us.”

Wynonna frowned, conceding that point.  “Maybe,” she started carefully.  “We should give her the benefit of the doubt.”

“I know,” Waverly sighed.  “I just…she’s a stranger.  I know you have a lot more memories of her than I do, but to me she’s the mother who left and never came back.”

“Until she did.”

Waverly cocked her head.  “That’s what Nicole said.”

“Well, you know what they say about great minds.”

Waverly rolled her eyes.  “I think I just need some more time,” she said.  “I have my life together and I’ve gotten this far but telling myself that she wasn’t coming back.  That’s how I dealt with the pain of her not being here, by telling myself it was constant.  I told myself that Nicole would never know her, that my kids would never know her.  I’m not sure how to accept that they might, not when I barely even know her.  When all I know about her is the pain she caused.”

Wynonna nodded, then her face dropped.  “Wait, kids?  Plural?!”

“Oh, no no no,” Waverly said, hand up.  “Future plural.  One at a time.”

Wynonna laughed.  “Geez, Waves.  You scared me there.”

Waverly laughed.  “Yeah, I think Nicole would have a heart attack if we had twins.”

“Do you mean a _Haught_ attack?”

Waverly gave her a look of disbelief, then started packing her things.  “Well, it was so nice we had this talk, Wynonna…”

Wynonna cringe.  “You’re right, that was awful, but I couldn’t resist.”

Waverly shook her head as she put her things back on the table.

“Are you going to tell Bette?”

“That you make shitty puns?  I’m sure she’ll notice.”

Wynonna gave her a look.

Waverly took a deep breath, shrugging.  “I’ll have to at some point, right?  If she plans on sticking around…”

“Which it seems like she does.”

Waverly nodded.  “Then, yeah, I guess I will.  Not right away, though.  Once I get to know her better, then I’ll start dropping the truth bombs, like ‘Oh hey, Mom, I grew up and married a woman,’ or, ‘Hey, long-lost mother of mine, I’m pregnant.’  Those seem like big reveals that you kind of work up to.”

Wynonna nodded.  She knew that, in a way, it was harder for Waverly.  She and Bette knew nothing about each other.  They had to start from scratch, which was a weird thing to do as an adult.

Waverly knew that Wynonna had it hard in a unique way, too.  Wynonna and Bette had a real relationship before Bette left.  They had memories and shared experiences and vague ideas in their head of who the other person was, over two and a half decades ago.  That had to be hard to reconcile with who everyone was now.

“What about you?” Waverly asked.  “What have you told her?”

“Well,” Wynonna said.  “She’s coming over again tonight.  You can come, if you want, but no pressure.  I think I’m going to explain the curse.”

“She was around when Daddy turned twenty-seven, she has to know about the curse.”

“Yeah, but it’s still pretty unbelievable.  We’ll see what she knows, what she remembers, and fill in the blanks from there.  I can call you after, if you want.”

“No, I’ll come,” Waverly said. 

**-WE-**

Dinner that night actually went pretty well.  Tensions were definitely not as flared as they had been the day before.  Waverly made a point to hold her tongue, wanting to give Wynonna the chance to explain.  Originally, Dolls had planned on joining Wynonna at dinner, so she wouldn’t be alone, but since Waverly agreed to come, Dolls decided not to go.

Waverly was grateful, as was Wynonna and Bette, even.  A planned interaction with just them, no other people, no matter how connected to the family they may be, was nice.

So, Wynonna eventually finished the explanation of the curse, and the basic history of the Earps up to that point.  She explained what happened to Ward, and what happened to Willa.  She explained how she grew up, and Waverly explained how she grew up.  Gus was Bette’s sister, so Bette was happy to hear that Gus and Curtis took such good care of them (or, more likely, took such good care of Waverly and tried with Wynonna).

“So, this is what you do for a living?” Bette asked.  “This division you work for, it hunts demons?”

Wynonna nodded.  “Yeah, revenants.  I work there full time with Dolls, who you met yesterday.”

“And I’m there part time, really more like a consultant and researcher,” Waverly added.  “I also work as a professor, though.  I do mostly online courses, since the closest university is hours away, but I travel a lot, too, giving lectures and presentations and whatnot.”

“Wow, that’s impressive,” Bette said, meaning it.  Wynonna also looked at Waverly with a proud grin, and Waverly managed a smile in return.  “What’s your favorite place you’ve gone?”

Waverly exhaled, thinking.  “Babylon was great,” she said.  “Rome was incredible, too.”

Bette nodded.  “Wow,” she said.  “I’ve never been to Europe.  Or Iraq, for that matter.  I haven’t been anywhere.”

Waverly’s jaw clenched a bit.  She didn’t know what to say.

Wynonna jumped in.  “I’ve never been to Vancouver,” Wynonna said.

Bette looked at Wynonna and nodded a bit.  Neither party wanted to invite the other to a trip, that was a huge commitment.  Bette was worried the sisters might say no if she asked, and Wynonna and Waverly were afraid Bette might say yes if they asked.

“Who was the woman that was here yesterday?” Bette asked.  “Nicole…what was it?”

“Haught,” Waverly filled in.

“She left with you, Waverly, are you good friends?”

Waverly made a face.  “Yeah, sorry about rushing out like that.  Things got a little…intense.”

“I understand,” Bette said.  “I know my being back is a shock.  It’ll take some time to get used to, even as we get to know each other.”

Waverly and Wynonna exchanged a look.

“Okay,” Waverly began.  She took a breath.  “Nicole is my wife.”

Bette looked shocked.  “Oh.”

Wynonna stifled a laugh and Waverly gave her a look.

“While we’re at it, I’m dating Dolls,” Wynonna offered, trying to take some of the awkwardness off of Waverly.

Bette nodded.  “Okay.”

There was a bit of awkwardness still, but it was more the usual awkwardness that comes with sharing personal details with your mother, and with someone you don’t know very well.  But Bette didn’t seem angry or disgusted or anything that Waverly and also Wynonna had come to expect, on some level, when people heard who they were involved with.

“And what does Nicole do?”

To Waverly’s surprise, she found herself grinning a bit.  She found herself wanting to share things about Nicole.

“She’s a police officer,” she began.

“She’s basically next in line for sheriff,” Wynonna said.

Waverly didn’t disagree.  Instead, she looked proud.

“Well, this town could use a good sheriff,” Bette said.

**-WE-**

“Admit it, that went well,” Wynonna said later that night as Waverly helped her clean up, after Bette had gone.

“It did,” Waverly said.

“I’m proud of you.”

Waverly gave her a look.  “What did you think was going to happen?”

“Not exactly this,” Wynonna said.  “Waverly Haught, willingly sharing personal information with someone she doesn’t entirely trust.”

Waverly laughed and rolled her eyes.  Both she and Nicole had kept their names after they married (Waverly was not about to become Professor Haught), but Wynonna was especially keen on calling one of them by the other’s last name when she was in a teasing mood.  “It’s not like I was going to sit there silently.”

“Yeah, that would never happen.”

Waverly gave her a look as she handed her a plate, as Wynonna stood at the sink.

“I’m proud of you, too,” Waverly said.  “If that’s what we’re doing right now.  I’m proud of you for sticking around, for handling this.  For handling everything.”

Wynonna gave her a look, then took a handful of soap suds and got Waverly’s nose.

“Hey!” Waverly protested, surprised and amused.  She reached for more, with a devilish glint in her eye, and got Wynonna across the cheek.  Wynonna shrieked and went back for more, effectively starting a suds war with her little sister.  It was like they were kids again.

**-WE-**

Later that night, Doc and Wynonna sat on Wynonna’s porch.  Dolls was at the gym, but he knew that Doc and Wynonna hung out regularly.  He usually joined them, when he was done with his workout, but also made sure to give them time alone.

Wynonna refilled his mug of whiskey.

“Did you know Wyatt’s kids?” Wynonna asked.  She thought she knew the answer, but just wanted to be sure.

“No I did not,” Doc said.  “We parted ways before Wyatt rode on to Purgatory.”

“Did Wyatt know Wyatt’s kids?” Wynonna asked.

Doc gave her a sideways look.  “I do not know.  But I reckon he would have wanted to.”

Wynonna sighed.  “Maybe wanting isn’t enough.”

“This is about your mother coming back to town.”

Wynonna now gave him a sideways look.  “I don’t know where you would’ve gotten that idea.”

“When Constance Clootie worked her magic on me and made me what I am, I wanted to see the people I left behind,” he said.  “I wanted to make things right with Kate, my girl.  I wanted to make up with Wyatt, maybe go back home to Georgia.  But I had been through something that they wouldn’t understand, and whether or not I tried to or wanted to, what I had done hurt them.  I knew I could not see them, since I was not the me that they knew.”

“Brevity is not your strong suit, is it?” Wynonna sighed.

“When you leave someone, they only have the memory of who you are.  Sometimes the memory is better than the person you come back as, sometimes it’s not.”

“So you can just decide that people are better off without you?” Wynonna asked.  “That’s not fair.  That’s not right.”

“I think you’ll find that fairness and rightness can be subjective.”

“Even to a lawman like you?” Wynonna asked.  “Or me, for that matter?”

Doc shrugged.

“You’re kind of a downer when you’re drunk, you know that?”

Doc chuckled.  “It’s the thought that counts, as they say, but only to a point.  At a point, it becomes an excuse.  I could have wanted to visit Kate all I wanted but who knows if I would have, since I got trapped in that damned well.”

“You’re welcome for that rope, by the way.”

“Much obliged,” Doc said, tipping his hat.  “If I really wanted to see Kate, or Wyatt, or my mother after Constance worked her magic, I would’ve gone immediately.  But my time in the well made that impossible, they were all gone by the time I was freed.  But if I could’ve seen them then, I would have ridden for days on end to get to them.”

“We really need to introduce you to planes,” Wynonna muttered.  “And the art of succinct story telling.”

“Point is,” Doc said pointedly.  “Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve actually got until you’ve been unable to see it.”

“Even if you left it in the first place?”

“Even then.”

Wynonna sighed.  “See?  How hard was it to say just that?”  Doc gave her a look.  “What if they didn’t want to see you?  Or they weren’t sure things could be okay again?”

“Then I’d wait,” Doc said.  “I’d wait until they knew what they wanted, and when they told me, I’d listen.”

“You think we should tell her we don’t want have her in our lives?”  Wynonna scoffed.  “That’s a bit scorched earth, no?”

“Only if it’s not true,” Doc said.  “I think you shouldn’t go stringing her along.”

“She’s been back for barely thirty-six hours,” Wynonna said.  “I don’t think it’s possible to string someone along for a day and a half, not when they’ve been stringing us along for twenty-five years.”

Dolls pulled into the driveway and got out of the car and started walking toward the deck.

“I doubt she intended to have her memory erased.”

“Maybe, maybe not.”  Dolls got closer so she greeted him.  “Hey.  How was the gym?”

“The usual,” he replied.  “How are you two doing?”

“Doc is giving me a lesson in fairness.”

“I am simply suggesting that if she and Waverly come to a conclusion on how they would like to proceed with their mother’s involvement in their lives, either independently or together, they would be better to inform her of it.”

Dolls thought for a second.  “I agree.”

“What?” Wynonna asked.

“Doc is right,” he said, taking her mug and drinking from it.  “You should take your time figuring out what you want to do, but once you do, do it.  The ball’s in your guys’ court.  It can’t stay there forever, right?”

Wynonna looked from her boyfriend to Doc, then back again.  “It still weirds me out when you two agree.”

Dolls shrugged.  He put the mug back on the table and kissed Wynonna’s head.  “I’m going to take a shower.  Feel free to join.”

Doc blushed and Wynonna grinned.  “You heard him, Doc.  I think that your cue to leave.”  She tipped her imaginary cap at him.

Doc nodded, standing.  “Good night, Wynonna.”

“Good night.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Oh, Doc and his old-timey wisdom,” Waverly sighed as she and Wynonna walked down the street.  They had gone shopping together, and they were each carrying a bag or two.

“He’s got a point, though,” Wynonna said.  “Even if it took him about an hour to make it.  Things are still so awkward because we don’t know where we’re heading with this, and you and I are the ones who decide where it’s heading.”

Waverly nodded, not looking at Wynonna.  “Right.  I mean, it’s only been a few days.  Is there any set timeline for this?”

“I doubt Bette’s going to demand an answer,” Wynonna said.  “But, it is awkward, this uncertainty that’s always there between all of us.”

It had been a few days since Doc and Wynonna had that talk, and the topic had come up a few times between Waverly and Wynonna.  They had seen Bette in those few days, so they decided to use the past few days and the coming ones to figure out what to do, a la Doc's advice.

“Well, we can clear it up between us,” Waverly said, slowing and looking at Wynonna.  “She’s already met Nicole, and she knows who she is, so I’m not worried about that.”

Wynonna nodded in agreement.  “She’s met Dolls, too.”

“As for the baby, I do want to keep that under wraps for a little longer,” Waverly continued.  Wynonna looked like she understood, but it took a second.  “I mean, it won’t be here for months.  Telling her about it is kind of forcing her to stick around for the next four and a half months.”

“Which is not something you want.”

“It’s not something I want to force her to do,” Waverly countered.

Wynonna understood that.  “Okay.  Well, you may need to get a bit more creative with your camouflage.  I’m guessing Nicole’s running out of sweaters for you to steal.”

“Yep,” Waverly said.  “I’ve already scoped out the perfect time to raid Dolls’ closet at the homestead.  He won't notice if, like, one sweater goes missing, right?”

Wynonna feigned a scandalized look.  “What?  Xavier does not have an entire closet at the homestead.”

Waverly scoffed.  “Yes, _Xavier_ totally does.  God, you two are about the least subtle people on the planet.”

“You should talk, you basically made a hobby out of mounting your girlfriend in her boss’s office.”

“Yeah, and now we’re married.”

Wynonna’s cheeks reddened.  “Whoa, easy there.  What?  No.  Who’s talking about marriage?”

Waverly shrugged.  “Hey, I’m just saying,” she said.  “And I’m also just saying, that’s where I stand with Bette.  I don’t mind opening up to her a bit, but the basics.”

“You don’t think this qualifies?” Wynonna asked, waving her hand over Waverly’s stomach.

Waverly rolled her eyes.  “The basics that are happening right now.  The basics that she can meet and be involved in now.”

“In case she decides to leave later,” Wynonna finished.

“I just want to be prepared,” Waverly said.  “It is possible to try with her without going all in.”

“Is it?” Wynonna asked.  “Jesus, Waves.  Since when do you not go all in?”

Waverly was taken aback.  “When I’m dealing with someone who is basically a stranger and has already left us once.”

Wynonna didn’t look convinced.

“I’m on your side, Wynonna.  I always am.  But I’ve got other people I need to protect now.”

“I’m pretty sure Nicole can protect herself,” Wynonna said.  “She knows Bette probably about as much as you do.”

“Exactly,” Waverly said.  “All we really know about Bette is that she left us once and didn’t take us with her or try to contact us.  I’m going to try with her now, but I’m not going to put myself or my family in a position where she can hurt us like that again.”

“Understood.”

“But you should do what you want to do,” Waverly said.  “I obviously think being a little careful is better, but it’s just because-.”

“You’ve got more at stake than I do,” Wynonna said.  “More people to protect.”

“No,” Waverly corrected.  “I don’t know her.  She doesn’t know me.  You had six more years with her than I did.  We’re coming at this from different perspectives, so I get if you want to go about this differently.”

Wynonna looked at her.  “It’s weird that you’re going to be a mom.”

Waverly laughed.  “Believe me, I know.  It’s really weird.”

“But you’re going to be hella good at it.”

“Yeah, well, that’s kind of the idea,” Waverly said.  They reached Wynonna’s truck and got in.  “And, by the way, I think you’ve got the ‘cool aunt’ gig locked up.”

“Yeah?  No way,” Wynonna said, recalling Nicole’s family.  “Isn’t Nicole’s sister-in-law a professional hockey player?  I can’t beat that.”

“Yeah, but in Europe,” Waverly said.  “You live half an hour away.”

Wynonna nodded and started the car.  “’Cool Aunt Wynonna.’  Hmm.  Okay.”

Wynonna smiled to herself and Waverly grinned, too.

**-WE-**

“How did you know you wanted to marry Waverly?”

Nicole looked up from the file she was working on at her desk.  “Good morning, Wynonna.”

“Yeah, hi,” Wynonna said.  She looked at Nicole expectantly.

“Okay,” Nicole said.  “If you recall, she asked me.”

“I do recall,” Wynonna said.  “But surely it wasn’t a game-time decision on your part.  You had to know before then, right?”

Nicole looked at her curiously.  “Why, are you trying to get married?”  Her eyebrows shot up and her eyes got wide.  “Holy shit, did Dolls ask you?!”

“No!” Wynonna said, in a hushed, harsh tone.  “No one asked me.  Not lately, anyway.  Do you have an answer or not, Haught stuff?”

Nicole sighed.  She had a complicated relationship with the nicknames Wynonna gave her.  “Okay,” she said, thinking.  “Well, I don’t know.  I don’t think there was like I specific moment I went from not wanting to marry her to wanting to marry her.  I just knew.  Like, I woke up one morning and thought to myself, a life with Waverly Earp would not be a bad life at all.”

“Romantic,” Wynonna said.  “And, it doesn’t count if it’s like, the day after you met her and got her out of her t-shirt.”

Nicole blushed.  “How did you know about that?”

“I know everything,” Wynonna said, tapping the side of her head.  “So, you just woke up one day and knew?  Really?”

Nicole nodded.  “Yeah, really.  I woke up next to her and got into thinking that I could do that every day.  I would hear her tell me about her day and realized that my days didn’t feel complete until I had heard about hers.  I don’t know, even how I looked at her change.  Her ring finger started looking mighty bare, for one.”

Wynonna frowned.  “Don’t tell me about you ogling my sister’s fingers.”

Nicole rolled her eyes.  “You get the point, though, right?  At some point, I started thinking more about my life with her than without her.  She became an integral part of my plans, like a step one.  Like I didn’t want to do anything she wasn’t going to be here for.”

“That sounds pretty codependent.”

“With that amount of cynicism, you and Dolls are perfect for each other,” Nicole said.  Now Wynonna rolled her eyes.  “It’s not codependent.  I don’t need Waverly there and she doesn’t need me.  We want each other around though.  We make each other happier.”

“You two doofuses have been together for, what, eight years?  And you still want each other?”

At that moment, Waverly walked out of the BBD office.  She passed by the entrance to the police office and smiled and waved at Nicole, who returned the gesture.  “Yeah,” Nicole said.  “All the time.”

“Gross.”

“Not what I meant!” Nicole said.  “Although, _damn._   She looks better in my clothes than I do.”

“Alright, I’ve got no idea what to say to that, so this is my cue to leave,” Wynonna said.  “Thanks for the help, Mrs. Earp.”

“No problem, Mrs. Dolls,” Nicole said, a little quietly at that last bit.

“What?” Wynonna stopped as she walked away.

“Nothing,” Nicole said.  “See you later!”

Wynonna gave her a wary look then went on her way.

**-WE-**

“I was a teacher,” Bette explained the next day over brunch.  

“Brunch” was a term loosely applied.  They were at Bette’s hotel, which had a small bar and seating area in the lobby, which boasted a “full brunch” on weekends that was really just a big tray of eggs, burnt toast, and slightly bruised fruit.  Every other time they all had gotten together was at the homestead, and they thought a change of scenery was necessary.  Unfortunately, Purgatory did not offer much in the way of scenery.  They thought that maybe going to a popular local spot was not the best idea, lest someone recognize Bette and start the town talking about how yet another long-lost Earp had returned.

So, that’s how they ended up in a poorly-lit glorified-motel lobby on a Saturday afternoon.

“I taught year six,” Bette said.

“That’s right,” Wynonna said.  “I remember Willa used to talk about how you’d be her teacher, then you…”

“Then I left,” Bette said, having the decency to look a bit ashamed.  She cleared her throat.  “I taught for the past twenty-five years, too, when I was bouncing around.”

“You’re a teacher now?” Waverly asked.

Bette nodded.  “In Calgary, yeah.  I took a leave of absence when I started remembering things, so I don’t have to be back anytime soon.”

Still, after days of this, Waverly wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.  She was starting to lean more toward good, though.  Wynonna was in the same boat.

“Oh,” Wynonna said, not missing too much of a beat.  She said it in a way that it moves the conversation forward.

“Yeah,” Bette continued.  “I think I’m still a few years from retirement, so I will get back to it eventually, though.”

“Why teaching?” Waverly asked.

“Well, my mother was a teacher.”

“Really?” Wynonna asked.  She didn’t know that, and if she didn’t know that, Waverly certainly didn’t.  They both had asked Gus about her and Bette’s parents when they were younger, but over time the girls learned not to ask about it.  Gus didn’t talk about them much, other than confirming that they were dead.

Bette nodded.  “Yep.  She taught at the elementary school me and Gus went to.  I remember growing up and being so embarrassed that she was the teacher.  It wasn’t cool to have your mom working at your school, you know?  Then I grew up, I went to university, I met your dad.  I really looked forward to teaching you girls.”

Waverly held her tongue, holding back the comment that could easily come after.  It surprised herself how easily she held it back, though.

“What do you remember about us?” Wynonna asked.

Bette looked over at the bartender, who was clearly bored and waiting to be asked for something.  The three women were the only people in the small bar area, so the bartender stood behind the bar, alternating between cleaning and looking busy and also playing on their phone, waiting to be of service.  They actually looked relieved to be called upon.

“Excuse me, bartender,” Bette said.  “Could we get drinks?”

“Yes, please,” the bartender said.  “What can I get you?”

“It’s noon,” Waverly said.  She knew she drank some wine the other day but she really didn’t want to drink any more.

“It’s brunch,” Bette said.  She frowned.  “Wait, is brunch a city thing?”

Wynonna scoffed.  “Yes, we understand the rules of brunch, even here in the sticks.  Day-drinking under the guise of ‘brunch’ is not a phenomena limited to the great metropolis that is Calgary.”

Waverly chuckled, and Bette turned, looking a bit hurt.

“She’s joking,” Waverly said.  “I’m not drinking but you should, if you want.”

“Come on, we’re all going to drink together,” Bette said.

Waverly shook her head.  “Not me.  But you two, go ahead.”

Bette looked like she was going to protest again, but Wynonna cut her off.

“Two screwdrivers, please,” she told the bartender.  She took a glance toward Waverly.  “And…one orange juice?”

Waverly nodded, approving.

“Coming right up,” the bartender called.

The three women turned their attention back to their table.

“So, what do you remember?” Waverly asked, picking up where Wynonna left off.  “Not even everything, just…I don’t know.  Anything that we probably wouldn’t remember?”

Bette looked at Waverly for a long moment, so much so that Waverly was starting to get uncomfortable.  Then, she looked away.

“When you were a baby,” Bette said, talking to Waverly.  “You used to giggle all the time, at everything.  Everywhere I took you, you’d find something to laugh about or smile at and people would come up to me in public and tell me how cute and bubbly you were.”

“Not much has changed,” Wynonna laughed.

“The one thing that would make you laugh the most, though,” Bette continued.  “Was this one.”  She pointed toward Wynonna.  “She was fascinated by you.  She’d follow me around when I was taking care of you, she’d make faces at you from across the room.  It took us a while to notice it, she’s a sneaky one,” she said, looking toward Wynonna, who held her gaze for a second then looked away.  “But that’s what made you laugh the most.  Wynonna, standing in the corner or sitting across the table making goofy faces at you.  Willa would do it too, sometimes, when you were really young, if Ward wasn’t in a mood.”

Waverly smiled through the story.  It was nice to hear.  She knew so little about when she was young, because for the longest time all she had to go on was Wynonna’s memory, which was limited by her age and (if she was being honest) repression, and Gus and Curtis, who weren’t really constants in Waverly’s life until after her parents had gone.  She was really young when her mother left, the youngest in an already full house.  She wasn’t really all that surprised that one of her mother’s favorite memories of her had a bit more to do with her sister than her.

Still, she turned toward Wynonna.  “Do you remember any of that?”

Wynonna shook her head.  “Not at all.  Sounds like me, though.”

Waverly chuckled.  “It does.”

“And you would follow Willa everywhere,” Bette said to Wynonna.  “But you did get into a fair bit of trouble on your own.”

“That seems like an understatement,” Wynonna muttered, earning an amused look from Waverly and a confused-bordering-on-concerned one from Bette.

“You used to climb things,” Bette continued.  “Everything, really.  The railings of the stairs, the fence outside, the side of the house once.”

“I think I remember that,” Wynonna said.  She paused as the bartender deposited their drinks at the table and they all said their “thank you’s”.  “Did I fall at one point?  I think I remember falling on ice.”

“That was the time you and Willa tried to make an ice rink in the yard,” Bette said.  “You heard some kids at school talking about ice skating, found some skates – that were at least a couple sizes too big, by the way – in the attic and put the hose out and sat there, in the cold, waiting for this giant puddle to freeze.”

Wynonna nodded, remembering.  “And we got impatient and tried to skate on it anyway, and I fell.”

Bette nodded.  “You banged your head good against that ice, and scraped up your cheek.”

Wynonna’s face fell as she remembered more.  “Daddy was at work and when he got home and saw the mess we made, and how we got hurt…”

Bette cleared her throat.  “He didn’t like it.”

Waverly took a sip of the drink in front of her, then almost coughed it back up.

“Oh shit, that is a lot of vodka.”

Wynonna looked over at her and sipped from her glass, then immediately switched their glasses.  “Shit, here.”

“Thanks,” Waverly said, taking Wynonna’s glass and washing down the intense vodka taste in her mouth.

Wynonna drank some of drink Waverly gave her.  “Wow,” she breathed.  “That could fell a horse.”  She turned and raised her glass in cheers to the bartender, who winked at her.  “Okay.”

“Do you girls remember anything about me?” Bette asked, a bit abruptly.

Wynonna and Waverly exchanged a look, both with varying degrees of panic and trepidation.

“I remember a lot,” Wynonna breathed.  “Holidays, birthdays.  You really liked to decorate the house.”  She grinned to herself.  “I remember you taught us how to make those paper snowflakes that you could make by just like, folding a piece of paper and cutting it a bunch.  I think one winter when there was a lot of snow days, Willa and I were obsessed with those.  We made them all the time, with our little safety scissors.”

She remembered her days in the psychiatric hospital that they put her in, and she felt a pang in her chest.  She had access to safety scissors, and she remembered making those snowflakes there.  She remembered, too, at every foster home she ended up at or juvenile detention center or wherever, she would always get the urge to make paper snowflakes at the first snowfall of the season.

“You used to carry them around,” Bette said. “When you went back to school, you two would give them to all your friends.  You’d leave them around school and also all over the house, too.  They were everywhere.”

Wynonna smiled, choosing to remember those happier memories over the more painful ones, and also enjoying that she could share that memory with her mother.  She looked over at Waverly, who was drinking her juice.  It was like the two of them had realized, at the same moment, that like it or not, Waverly’s arrival in the family marked a turning point for the worse.  Wynonna had all these family memories, these good times that Waverly just didn’t.  Ward was awful, but he remembered Wynonna’s birthday.  He never even acknowledged Waverly’s.  Waverly didn’t remember much about Bette, but she knew enough that this snowflake memory of Wynonna’s was pre-Waverly.  The house Waverly grew up would not have been littered with arts and crafts, or decorations.

“What about you, Waverly?” Bette asked.  She either didn’t notice or acknowledge the loaded silence between the sisters.

“Uhm,” Waverly stammered, gathering her thoughts.  Suddenly, she remembered something.  “You used to sing to us,” she said, surprised as she said it.  “Before bed, sometimes, if Daddy was working late, you’d sing to us.”

Bette nodded.  Wynonna didn’t really remember this, but it was starting to come back.

“I did,” Bette said.  “I wish I would’ve done it more.  I must’ve only done it a handful of times.”

Waverly nodded.  She remembered Curtis singing to her before bed when she lived with him and Gus, and had always kind of figured that he did it just because.  But now, thinking about it, she remembered her first nights there.  Staying with Curtis and Gus was the safest she’d felt since her mom left, but with no parents, no Willa, and no Wynonna there, she was terrified.  So, she would cry at night and cry for her mom (still), for her sisters, for anyone.  At some point, Curtis figured out that singing would calm Waverly down.  After a while, he started to sing the weasel song that led her to the skull in the piano, years later.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t do it more,” Bette said.

**-WE-**

That night, Waverly and Wynonna were talking on the phone.

“I don’t know,” Waverly said as she made dinner.  Nicole wasn’t home yet from work, so she was alone – except for the cats, of course.  “I think she’s fine in the hotel.  If she wanted to stay with one of us, she would’ve asked.”

Wynonna was sat on her porch, nursing a mug of whiskey and speaking to Waverly on her cell phone.  “Maybe she’s waiting for us to offer.”

“I really don’t think she is,” Waverly said.  “The hotel she’s in is…fine.  It’s not bad.  Who knows what she gets up to during the day but I think it’s better that we don’t all spend all our time together.”

“But she doesn’t know the town very well-.”

“But she used to,” Waverly said.  “It’s been twenty-five years since she’s been here.  She probably needs time and space to get reacquainted with the town, as well as us.”

“Is that all she does all day, you think?” Wynonna asked.  “I mean, we don’t even see her every day.  What does she get up to?”

Waverly cleared her throat.  “I definitely do not know, because I definitely did not ask Nicole to keep an eye on her.”

“Waverly!”

“Oh, like you wouldn’t have asked Dolls if you thought of it first?”

“He offered, and I turned him down,” Wynonna said. “We shouldn’t go spying on our mother!”

Wynonna could practically hear Waverly shrug through the phone.

“Anyway,” Waverly said, stepping carefully over a cat at her feet (Calamity Jane loved nuzzling up against people’s legs when they were standing or walking around the house).  “It wouldn’t be awful if she, I don’t know.  Maybe looked for something a bit more permanent.”

“What, like an apartment?” Wynonna asked.

“Yeah,” Waverly said.  “I know she has that teaching job up in Calgary but she basically has the rest of the year off, plus the whole summer.  And, she’s thinking about retiring soon, right?”

“You want her to retire in Purgatory now?”

Waverly exhaled deeply.  “Shit, I don’t know, Wynonna.  I learned more about her today than I’ve remembered in the last twenty-five years.  She was good to us, when she could be.”

Wynonna took a few moments to respond.  “Okay,” she said.  “Yeah, we can bring that up one of the next times we see her, float the idea of her maybe being a bit more permanent here and seeing what she thinks.”

“And then the ball is in her court.”

Wynonna frowned a bit, but sounded normal.  “Yes.  So, what did Officer Dimples find when she was tailing Bette?”

Waverly rolled her eyes at the nickname.  “Nothing unusual.  She goes to the store, to the library.  She spends a lot of time at the library, I doubt her library card is still valid so she probably can't take books out.  She goes to the cemetery, too, sometimes.  She walks around a lot.”

“And doesn’t notice that she’s being followed?”

“She’s not being followed constantly, Nicole is just having some deputies keep an eye out,” Waverly said.  “Anyway, no.  It doesn’t seem like she knows about it.”

“Then maybe we should ease up?” Wynonna suggested.  “It’s been almost a week.”

“Yeah, probably,” Waverly agreed.  “Alright, I’ll call Nicole off.”

“Thanks, baby girl,” Wynonna said.

**-WE-**

Waverly had developed a habit of bringing food to Doc.  He had been in this time for a while and knew how to use new fangled technology like the electric stove, but still, Waverly felt for him.  And, somehow, despite their best efforts, Nicole and Waverly always ended up with leftovers that they might as well put to good use (or, at least, that’s what she told Doc).

So, she was in his apartment, doing her semi-weekly drop off of food.  Doc was still a consultant on Black Badge, as was Waverly, but their paths did not often cross.  They cared about each other, though, so they made time.

“Thank you very much, Waverly,” Doc said, taking the plastic container from her.

“Any time,” Waverly said.  “I learned this recipe when I was in Morocco.  Seriously, you should get on a plane one of these days.  There’s a whole wide world out there that you can’t drive to.”

Doc made a face.  In the years past, Dolls had managed to get him dual American-Canadian citizenship, since he technically was an American living in Canada.  The Canadian citizenship made it easier to stay there without too many questions, and the American citizenship made it easy to go down to Las Vegas every few months or so and make money playing poker.

“There is something poetic about packing up your horse and heading out on the open road.”

“Doc, you drive a Honda.  Come on, you’re a traveler at heart, ain’t you?”  She did her best Doc-accent at that last bit.  “I know you love the open road, but maybe try the open skies, or the open sea.”

“My car is plenty reliable, you’ll be kind to note,” he said.  “Besides, I have no interest in being lifted off the ground and stuck in a winged tin, thirty thousand feet in the air with no way out.”

Doc had come to love driving.  He drove as far as he could, spending months on the road, getting as far south as Colombia and as far east as Georgia, to visit his mother’s grave.

“You know that travelling by plane is a lot safer than travelling by car, right?”

Doc frowned.  “I do not believe that to be true.”

“It is,” Waverly said.  “Based on the frequency of car accidents.”

“I am a very cautious driver.”

Waverly gave him a look.  Doc had calmed his speeding habit over the years, but only barely.  He had a bit of a lead foot.

“At least I can drive myself,” Doc continued.  “I can’t fly a plane.”

“You can fly a plane,” Waverly said.  “You can take classes and get a license.”

Doc started to consider it, and Waverly could see the excitement he was trying to contain.  “Really?”

Waverly nodded.  “Really. You travelled out west to see the world, right?”

“I travelled out west to alleviate the symptoms of my tuberculosis,” Doc said.  “And to escape charges of illegal gambling.”

“Right,” Waverly said.  “Well, you’re cured and you can gamble legally.  You like travelling, Doc.  You’re healthy, you’re rich.  You shouldn’t waste this opportunity.”

Doc thought about it for a moment.  “I will consider it.”

“You should,” Waverly said.  She laughed.  “I mean, it’s not like we’re trying to send you to the moon.  Baby steps.”

Doc laughed.  “Now, Waverly, you can’t send someone to the moon.”

Waverly’s face fell, a mix of amusement and disbelief.  “Did…did no one tell you?”

“Did no one tell me what?”

And that’s how Waverly spent another two hours more than she intended at Doc’s place, showing him online footage of the moon landing and other space adventures.

**-WE-**

Wynonna was sitting with Dolls on her couch.  The television was on, but they both were doing other things – Dolls reading the paper, held in his lap above Wynonna’s extended legs, and Wynonna was playing with a lighter, paying minimal attention to the cooking competition show on the tv.

She put it down, though, and looked at Dolls.

“Yes?” he asked, not looking up.

“Are you staying over tonight?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said.  He put the paper down.  “I was planning on it.  Is that cool?”

“Yeah, of course it is,” Wynonna said.  “I was thinking, I don’t know.  I could clear out that closet you use, make sure you’ve got all the space you need.”

“I don’t need that much space,” Dolls laughed.  He saw Wynonna’s face fall the tiniest bit.  “But yeah, I could move in some more of my stuff.  Thanks.”

Wynonna smiled at him, and started to get back into her book before he spoke again.

“Hey, so, how was your day?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys, I have no idea why, but I *love* the idea of Doc not knowing that the moon landing happened.


	4. Chapter 4

“I thought all the revenants in Purgatory were sent back to hell, how did another one just show up?” Doc asked as he entered the Black Badge office.

“They all end up back here,” Dolls said.  “The Triangle is huge, we’ve been at this for years and we still haven’t covered all of it.  They are drawn to the heir.”

“Which is why I haven’t been on vacation in eight years,” Wynonna muttered, handing Doc a file.  “Witness accounts say that this guy glowed.  Does that ring any bells?”

“Glowed?”

Waverly nodded.  “There are uranium deposits all over the western US and Canada.  It can be used in glass, so I’m thinking glassmaker, but I need help narrowing it down.  Do any of these places look familiar?”

“Well, Wyatt never got up to Saskatchewan, so we can rid ourselves of that,” Doc said, looking through the maps in the file.  “Here,” he said, pointing.  “Wyatt went to this bit of Northern Arizona once.”

“Boys from Arizona are trouble,” Wynonna said, earning a look from Dolls.

Waverly took the file back, nodding at Doc and ignoring Wynonna and Dolls.  “Got it,” she said, looking through other papers.  “Alright, from Arizona we’ve got the Hernandez Glass Making Company?”

Doc nodded, frowning.  “Alfredo Hernandez,” he said.  “He killed another glassmaker that he thought was stealing his secret process.”

“Explains why it took his so long to get up here,” Dolls said.  “If he started way at the bottom of the Triangle.”

“How do we find him now, though?” Wynonna asked.  She looked at the board and looked at the red tacks in the board, showing all the places where this revenant had been spotted.  “He’s pretty spread out.”

“He’s disoriented,” Waverly offered.  “It’s an effect of radiation poisoning.  Disorientation, fatigue.  He’s not moving very fast.”

“But he’s not moving in any discernible pattern,” Dolls said.

Waverly shrugged.  “I don’t think he will.  He’s stumbling around.  He’s drawn to the heir, he’s the closest he’s ever been.  He probably doesn’t know what to do next.”

“He’s not hurting anyone,” Wynonna said.  “He’s just freaking people out, since he glows and all.”

“If we go to the last place he was spotted and fan out from there, we should be able to find him,” Dolls said.  He looked to Wynonna, who looked tired.  “I’m sorry, but we have to find him.”

Wynonna nodded, knowing that finding him meant sending him back to hell.  “I know.”

“Where was he last spotted?” Dolls asked, hand on Wynonna’s back but speaking to Waverly.

“I’ll text you the coordinates,” Waverly said.  “Just, uh.  Try not to get too irradiated, alright?”

Wynonna smirked.  “We’ll try.”  She turned to Doc.  “Come on, Doc.  We’ve got a murderous glow stick to find.”

**-WE-**

They split into groups to search the woods for Alfredo.  He was last spotted by some campers at the edge of the woods.  He didn’t go near them, he didn’t do anything to them, but the sight of a glowing human was enough to scare them into calling the cops.

Wynonna and Doc headed in one direction, while Nicole and Dolls each took a deputy with them and went in other directions.  They knew that he couldn’t run away or really escape at all, so their plan was basically to find him, alert Wynonna when they did, and follow him so that they didn’t lose track of him in the time it took for Wynonna to catch up.

Nicole happened to be paired with a rookie, named Julie Soo.  It was only Soo’s third week on the job, and she knew that Nicole was one of the best officers they had, so she was eager to impress.

“How’re you doing, Soo?” Nicole asked as they walked through the woods.

“I’m doing fine, ma’am,” Soo replied.

Nicole knew she made Soo nervous.  “Come on, Soo.  Chatting helps pass the time.”

“Aren’t we on a search right now?” Soo asked.  “Shouldn’t we be quiet?”

“No, actually,” Nicole said.  “We don’t want to spook Mr. Hernandez.  If he hears us coming, he’ll likely be less startled when we actually get to him.”

“Won’t he run?”

Nicole had been briefed by Wynonna over the phone.  She knew they were dealing with someone who was very sick and couldn’t move very fast.  “No, he won’t run.”

“Ma'am, don’t you think this place is weird?” Soo asked.  Nicole looked over at her with a bit of an amused look.  “I mean, sometimes.  I know you’ve been here a while and obviously you must like it if you’ve been here so long so I didn’t mean to insult it-.”

“It’s alright, Soo,” Nicole said.  “And call me Haught, or Nicole.  Yeah, this town is weird but it’s an experience, eh?”

Soo came around a bit.  “Yeah, I guess.”

“I was like you when I was a rookie,” Nicole said.  “I’m not from around here.  I didn’t know Purgatory was even a real place until I saw the job listing.  It’s…a bit of an acquired taste but there’s no other place like it.”

“Yeah, definitely,” Soo agreed.  “I mean…this guy is glowing?  What is that?”

“Kids these days….” Nicole muttered.  Other deputies often asked her about the oddities in town, they strange happenings and people and that, or some variation, was Nicole’s go-to response. 

“Come on, it’s got to be more than that.”

Nicole actually slowed down and looked toward Officer Soo.  “What more?  What are you thinking?”

“I don’t know,” Soo said.  “A new drug?  Something in the water?  Hell, a cult?  There’s got to be something that explains why people around here are so…strange.”

Nicole remembered that curiosity, that thirst to know what the hell was happening in this weird little town.

“You know Deputy Marshal Dolls handles a lot of these cases-.”

“But he’s American,” Soo cut in.  “He shouldn’t have jurisdiction up here.”

Nicole looked over at her.

“I’m sorry I cut you off, ma’am,” Soo said.  “Haught, I mean.  Officer Haught.  I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s cool,” Nicole laughed.  “Look, I get it.  I know what it’s like to come to this town and see how strangely things are done here and want to know more or do more or something.  But I promise, you’re doing your part, and you’re doing it well.  This town has some strange stuff going on and the Marshals and their cross-border task force are best equipped to handle it, with our help.”

“That’s what we do?  We help?”

“We protect the people of this town, however we can,” Nicole said.  “Sometimes that means letting go of the reins.  Sometimes it means not knowing exactly what role we play.”

Soo didn’t look convinced. 

“We all have our roles to play.  It’s taken years to work out this system but it’s the best possible one.  We can’t all be Marshals.”

“You could be sheriff, though.”

Nicole looked a bit surprised.  “Why do you say that?”  She had thought about being sheriff, but hadn’t talked about it with anyone but Waverly.  Nedley was obviously getting ready to retire, though, and not that Nedley was ever especially open with his feelings, but he had made it clear over the years that Nicole was his favorite and most trusted deputy.

Soo shrugged.  “You’re good at your job.  Nedley’s going to retire, soon.  I think you’d be best suited to take that job after him.”

“I do love his office,” Nicole said.  “But, I’m not thinking about it and I’d appreciate if you didn’t talk about it.  I just want to do the job I have as best I can.”

Soo nodded.  “Understood.”

“Thank you,” Nicole said, for more than just the agreement to keep quiet.

Suddenly they head a sound.  It sounded like something rustling the plants, moving through them.

“Did you hear that?” Nicole asked.  Soo nodded.  “What direction did it come from?”

“East,” Soo said.  “Southeast.  Could be Mr. Hernandez.”

Nicole nodded and gestured toward the southeast.  “Lead the way.”

**-WE-**

Nicole and Soo were speaking with Alfredo, wanting to keep him calm as Wynonna approached.

“Hey, Haughtstuff,” Wynonna said, walking up.  “We can take it from here.”

Nicole nodded and turned to Soo.  “Deputy Soo, if you could go run the perimeter.”

This was pretty standard procedure.  Black Badge used local police when working cases, but didn’t let them stick around to watch Wynonna put the revenants down.

Soo looked a bit upset that she had to leave, for just a fleeting moment, but they all noticed it.

“I will give you a hand with that, actually,” Nicole said.  She went off and Wynonna approached Alfredo.

“Alfredo Hernandez?” she called.

“Where are they going?” Alfredo asked.  “The cop, the tall one, she said she could help me.”

“That’s me,” Wynonna said.  “I’m the help.”

“I don’t feel so good.”

“I know,” Wynonna said.  “I know you’ve been stumbling around for years, trying to get here.  I know all about that.  I know what you did, I know why you’re here.”

“I don’t want to go back,” Alfredo said, almost pleading.  “This is bad but down there…down there is worse.”

Doc was with Wynonna but he stood there silently, watching.  He had his hand on his gun, ready to protect Wynonna if it came to that.

Wynonna shook her head, jaw tight but eyes watery.  “It doesn’t work like that, Alfredo.”  She had down this dozens of times before and it still hurt.  It always hurt.  And sometimes, it hurt a bit more than usual.  “You have to go back.”

“I’m not hurting anyone,” Alfredo said.  “I know people are scared of me but I can stay in the woods.  I can stay away from people.”

“I can’t let you do that, Alfredo,” Wynonna said.  She unholstered Peacemaker.  “Make your peace.”

“No!” Alfredo yelled, his glow burning bright and further outward with his rage, his denial, his pain.

“On the count of three, alright?” Wynonna asked, voice cracking the slightest bit.  “One…”

She pulled the trigger.

Alfredo fell, screaming, into the fiery ring that sent him back to hell.  Wynonna watched, and wiped the one tear that fell.

“Wynonna…” Doc began.

“Let’s go.”

**-WE-**

They reconvened at BBD afterward.  Nicole had to debrief the two deputies that joined them, but she did so in the station.  Dolls’ deputy hadn’t actually seen or heard anything, and was pretty used to being at BBD’s disposal.

Soo was a little tougher.  She was accepting Nicole’s statement about playing the role, but it was tough for her to swallow.

Nicole also insisted that everyone shower off, because apparently that was all that it took to decontaminate from radiation.  The station had showers in the locker room, which the BBD crew were given access to.

Wynonna was the first one out of the shower.  She was ready for the day to be over, so she wanted the debrief to be done as soon as possible.  So, she joined Waverly in the Black Badge office.

“Hey,” Waverly said.  “How did it go?”

“I’m radiation free, and the world has one less revenant.”

“Good,” Waverly said.  “You know, that was number seventy-six.”

“Really?” Wynonna asked.

“Yeah,” Waverly said.  “There’s only one more.”

“Only one more revenant, until the curse can be broken.”

Waverly nodded.  “We’re close, Wynonna.  All of this, this is for a reason.”

“A shitty reason,” Wynonna said.

“What you did today, you had to do,” Waverly said.  “What you’ve done seventy-five times before, you had to do it.  It’s good, ultimately.”

“Ultimately.”  Wynonna sighed.  “I just want to go to sleep, you know?  For, like, days.”

Waverly nodded.  She knew that some of these were harder than others.  She knew that it took a toll on Wynonna, even after all these years.  Especially after all these years.  In the past few years, Wynonna has become a full-fledged BBD deputy.  She and Dolls worked on cases that weren’t from Wyatt’s curse.  They had dealt with werewolves and more demon snake creatures and dark magic and tons of things beyond Wynonna’s wildest imagination.  Her job wasn’t all about the curse, and she was good at her job and she loved it.  The curse was always there, though, in the back of her mind.

But, maybe sometime soon, it wouldn’t be.

“Yeah,” Waverly said.  “You deserve a break.”

“You do, too,” Wynonna said, finally sitting.  “Your kid will be the heir, you know.”

Waverly gave her a look that was a bit too loaded for Wynonna to understand in the second that it lasted.  “I’m not an Earp.”

“You are, though,” Wynonna said.  “Maybe not by blood, but family's more than that.  You’re one of us, kid.”

“Us?” Waverly asked.

Wynonna cocked an eyebrow in agreement.  “Okay, so Earps may be a bit few and far between.  Our family is dysfunctional as all hell but it’s ours.  It’s yours.  Like it or not.”

“Most days, I think I choose not,” Waverly said, only half-joking and teasing.

“Yeah, I feel that,” Wynonna sighed, putting her feet up on another chair.  “We’re going to break this curse, Waves.  I promise.”

“I know,” Waverly said.  She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about the curse and how it would affect her child.  Wynonna had made herself very clear about not really being the kids type.  She liked kids fine but she didn’t want any of her own.  So, Waverly kind of always figured that her kid would be the heir.

Then she found out she wasn’t Ward Earp’s kid, and thought maybe that kicked her out of line to be the heir, and therefore her kids.  It was a strange feeling, one that really only manifested when she started seriously thinking about having kids.  She had wanted to be the heir for so long.  She had thought she deserved it for so long and it broke her heart for so long that she wasn’t the heir, then broke it again when she found out that she might not have a claim at all.

Then it sunk in that her kids wouldn’t be the heirs.  They wouldn’t have to feel the pain she and Wynonna felt, or go through what Willa went through, or even what Bette or Ward went through.  They’d be safe, they’d be normal.  It was strange to reconcile that utter relief with that previous heartbreak.

Waverly had wanted to break the curse for as long as she’d known about it.  Similarly, for as long as she’d known about it, she wanted to be involved and be hands on, not just a glorified researcher.  It had taken her entire life, with all its twists, to accept the role she ended up in, and it had taken her whole life to finally break the curse.

Wynonna, on the other hand, spent most of her life denying that the curse was real.  She spent most of her life hating herself for killing Ward and letting them take Willa and hating the stupid gun for betraying her and hating the world for putting her through so much pain.  She told herself that it wasn’t a curse, it wasn’t some grand plan or orchestration, it wasn’t something that could be explained or have a reason.  She told herself that it was just shit luck.

Then it wasn’t.  Then she came home because the curse had cost her Curtis and nearly cost her Waverly.  Waverly, who (in Wynonna’s mind) was supposed to be the good sister, the one unscarred by Peacemaker and juvie and foster homes, had chosen to make her whole life about the curse.  Wynonna, the one who could never really escape the curse, spent her whole life trying, while Waverly, the one who could’ve left and never look back, refused to move.

Wynonna’s years spent in Purgatory fighting the curse had cost her so much.  The curse had cost her so much but it was a constant.  It was an extreme relief that it may be done soon, that all the pain for effectively killing dozens of people over the span of years would be over soon, or at least not as fresh and burning.  But then there was the fear that the pain would never leave.  Wynonna didn’t remember a life without pain, and the idea of breaking the curse terrified her almost as much as the idea of never breaking it, but she was ready.  She was in pain and tired and possibly irreparably broken in at least some small way, but she was ready.  She was not about to let the people she loved live in that much pain and fear anymore, and maybe that included herself now.

“We’re going to break the curse,” Waverly said in disbelief, leaning back in her chair.  She laughed after a moment.  “What will we even do then?”

Wynonna shared in her shocked laughter and shrugged.  “I’ll finally leave this damn triangle, for one.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“Somewhere warm.”

Waverly laughed.  “And, what, get a tan for once in your life?”

Wynonna feigned offense, but kept talking anyway.  “Who knows?  A tan, a face tattoo.  I could go wild.”

“Yeah, that’d be new.”

**-WE-**

“Hey,” Nicole said walking into the living room and seeing Waverly still up, reading through files.  “Baby, come to bed.”

Waverly barely looked up.  “In a bit.  I think I’ve found something.”

“And it’ll still be there in the morning,” Nicole said, crossing the room to Waverly.  She took Waverly’s hand.  “Come on, get some rest and look at it with fresh eyes in the morning.”

“I can’t sleep.”

Nicole looked concerned.  She sat next to her.  “Okay, I’ll help, then.  What are you thinking?”

“No, Nicole, you should sleep,” Waverly said.  “It’s been a long day and you’ve got work in the morning.”

“So do you,” Nicole said.  She kissed Waverly’s shoulder.  “Sleeping alone sucks.  I’ll stay up with you for as long as it takes.”

Waverly turned and looked at her.   She knew there wasn’t a point in trying to get Nicole to go to bed, they were pretty evenly matched in terms of stubbornness.

“I love you, you know that?” Waverly asked.

Nicole grinned.  “I think I’ve heard that.”

“We’re so close to being done with this damn curse.  We’re so close to being free from all this shit.”

“This shit has been a constant in your life, for your whole life,” Nicole said.  “It’s awful but it’s always been there.  Of course you’re going to feel a lot of things about it.”

Waverly shook her head.  “I want it to be done.  All I want is for it to be done.”

“You can’t break the curse in a night,” Nicole said.

“I need to find the last revenant.”

“And you will,” Nicole replied.  “Maybe not tonight, maybe not tomorrow or this week.  But you will.  We’ve got all hands on deck for this, all we can do is work and wait.”

Waverly laughed a bit to herself.  “Remember that time in your car, before we started dating, before you knew about the curse?  And I was complaining about how everything and everyone was going too fast.  Now, here I am, complaining about how slow things are going.”

“Babe, I’ll listen to you complain whenever you want about whatever you want.”  Nicole kissed her again.  “How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” Waverly said.  “I feel good, we're good.  How about you?  Are you glowing in the dark?”

“No,” Nicole laughed.  She started thumbing at Waverly’s hair.  That was a habit Nicole had picked up over the years – playing with Waverly’s hair when they were close together and Nicole was thinking.  Waverly spotted the habit.

“What’s on your mind?”

“Do you want to stay here?” Nicole asked.  “After the curse is broken, after it’s done.  Do you want to stay in Purgatory?”

“I…don’t know,” Waverly said.  “I haven’t thought about it.  I don’t even know where we’d go.”

“I want to stay,” Nicole said.  “Deputy Soo today said she thinks I should be sheriff and…I don’t know.  You know it was on my radar but now it's on other people's radar.  I want it.  I want to stay here and build my career here and build our family here and-.”

Waverly cut her off with a kiss.

“Okay,” she said simply when she pulled back.  “We’ll stay, then.”

“Are you sure?” Nicole asked.  She knew what Gus had told Waverly years ago about being a small town waitress had stuck in Waverly’s head.  She didn’t want to trap Waverly, but at the same time she had her own ambitions.

“Of course,” Waverly said.  “This is our home, and I want to be where you want to be.”  Waverly knew that had ambitions and she wanted Nicole to reach them.  She wanted Nicole to do what she wanted and follow her dreams and reach her goals.  She knew Nicole was aware of Waverly’s complicated history with Purgatory, but Waverly also knew that Purgatory was infinitely better with Nicole there.  It didn’t feel like a small town trapping her anymore, it really did feel like home.  And, it helped that Waverly’s job let her travel so much.

Nicole smiled.  She kissed Waverly again.  “That reminds me,” she said, pulling back.  “My mom wants to visit.  She’s already bought a ton of baby stuff and she wants to help set up the nursery.”

“Sure,” Waverly said.  “The more the merrier.”  She loved Nicole’s mom.  Nicole’s whole family, actually, had been so welcoming to Waverly (and Wynonna, too, though Wynonna politely avoided them when she could, as there was only so many happy functional family moments she could handle).  Waverly really felt like a part of Nicole’s family and Nicole’s parents felt like parents to her, and her siblings felt like siblings to her.

“She said she’ll be here some weekend next month, but she’s not entirely sure yet,” Nicole asked.  “I have to put in to get days off so I’ll talk to Nedley tomorrow about when I can do that.  I was thinking, though, maybe they could meet Bette.”

“Yeah?”

“If you want,” Nicole said.  “They don’t even have to know who she is, exactly, but maybe Bette would like to meet them?  Or at least, Bette might like to help with the nursery.”

Waverly looked away for a moment.  “Yeah, she’d have to know about the baby first, otherwise it would be mighty confusing, I imagine…”

“You still haven’t told her?”

“I will, soon,” Waverly said.  “Wynonna and I are going to talk to her about maybe staying, and I want her to decide if she wants to stay for Wynonna and me, not for this.  I don’t want her around the baby if she doesn’t actually want to be there.  The baby isn’t going to be an afterthought that she just maybe will decide to be here for.”

Nicole nodded, understanding, or at least trying to.  She knew Waverly was taking her time to tell her but it’d been a while.  “There’s something else,” she said, reading Waverly’s expression.

Waverly nodded.  “I think I want to know who my father is.”

“Oh.”  Nicole wasn’t expecting that.  Waverly had been resigned to never knowing, since she never thought she’d see her mother again.  Nicole didn’t think she’d change her mind, and was unsure of what to make of it.

“Yeah,” Waverly said.  She shrugged.  “Bette’s here.  It’s my opportunity to find out.  Might as well take advantage.”

Nicole nodded.  “Okay.”  She put her forehead down on Waverly’s shoulder again.  “Come on, let’s go to sleep.  We can talk in bed.”

Waverly laughed, starting to put files away.  “Yeah, sure.  Talking is what you want to do in bed.”

“I don’t know what you’re insinuating,” Nicole joked, in a fiendish tone, while helping Waverly clean up.

“No?”  She picked up the last of the files and put them on a shelf where the cats couldn’t reach them.

Nicole, meanwhile, picked up Waverly.

“Hey!” Waverly squealed.  “What are you doing?”

“Carrying you to bed,” Nicole said, doing so, in the most matter-of-fact tone she could muster.

“Yeah, I caught that,” Waverly said.  “Why?”

Nicole shrugged.  “I didn’t get a chance to go to the gym today?”

“So you’re going to bicep curl your pregnant wife?”

Nicole grinned.  “Well, now I’m going to.”

Waverly didn’t protest.  She liked being in Nicole’s arms and, not that she’d admit it, it was nice to be carried; her feet were killing her.  She put her head against Nicole’s chest, feeling really comfortable and at ease for the first time that day.  Nicole smiled to herself, loving having Waverly so close to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I really wanted to get some revenant-fighting stuff in there, because that's a huge part of the show that I haven't really written about. Also I wanted to focus a bit more on Wynonna. I liked the idea of the curse still happening, and how much of a toll that would take on everyone after all these years, while still moving the story forward. So, yeah, that's kind of what I was getting at with this chapter. Let me know what you think please!


	5. Chapter 5

“When we are done with the curse,” Wynonna said delicately the next morning, still in bed next to Dolls.  “What are you going to do?”

“Move on to the next demonic or supernatural force we have to stop,” Dolls said.  “Kind of like what we’ve been doing for years now.”

“No,” Wynonna said.  “I mean, the curse is here.  You’re here because the curse is here.  There’s supernatural shit everywhere.  Once the curse is done, you don’t need to be here.”

“I’m here because you’re here,” Dolls said.  Wynonna only had a moment to react to that before he continued.  “I gave my bosses sufficient proof that the curse and the revenants were real years ago.  I want to be here.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that?”

“I did,” Dolls said.  “Like, four years ago, I told you I submitted a report to the bosses that they accepted.”

“Yeah, you said just that,” Wynonna said.  “I didn’t know what it meant!”

“It meant that I could’ve transferred somewhere else.”

“And you didn’t.”

“The work we do here is important,” Dolls said.  “Working with you is important.”

“ _Working_ with me?  You just woke up naked in my bed.”

“You’re important, Wynonna,” Dolls corrected.

“So…”

“I’ll stay,” Dolls said, not wanting to make her ask him.  “Or I’ll go with you, if you want to go somewhere.  I’m with you.”

“I’m not sure I want to go anywhere, at least not permanently,” Wynonna said.  “This finally feels like home, you know?”

“Then we’ll stay,” Dolls said.  “I love you, alright?  I’m in this with you.”

“In this with me?” Wynonna asked.

Dolls sighed.  “You know what I mean.  I want to be with you.”

Wynonna grinned, happy to hear him say it.  “I love you, too.”

**-WE-**

Bette looked at Wynona curiously over lunch later that day.

“Are you alright, Wynonna?  You look tired.”

“I am tired,” Wynonna said.  “Work’s been intense lately.”

“Is demon-hunting ever not intense?”

Waverly chuckled, as did Wynonna.

“No, not really,” Wynonna said. 

“Is it safe?”

Wynonna frowned.  “I mean, there are safer jobs in the world.”

“We’re very careful,” Waverly supplied.  “As much as we can be, anyway.  We haven’t gotten hurt yet.”

“Waves, you’ve been shot twice.”

“The first was just a graze, and you’ve been kidnapped!” Waverly countered.  “And stabbed!”

“ _That_ was a graze, if anything,” Wynonna said.

Bette looked wide-eyed, jaw dropped.  “What?”

“Uh,” Waverly stammered, not sure how to salvage that one.  She looked to Wynonna.

“We have a really good team,” Wynonna said.  “Dolls is a great leader, he won’t let anything happen to us.  And Nicole’s not going to let anything happen to Waverly, especially now.”

Waverly glared at her and kicked her under the table, and Wynonna realized her mistake.  She gave Waverly a discreet apologetic look.

“What’s happening now?” Bette asked.

Wynonna gave Waverly an encouraging look.

“Nothing,” Waverly said. “Nothing’s happening.”

Bette looked at Wynonna, like she was expecting her to fill it in.  Waverly glared at her.

“I just meant, you know…” Wynonna said.  “You just got a new place.  She can’t pay for it all on her own, right?”

“You just bought a new place?” Bette asked.  “Why?”

Waverly looked from Wynonna to Bette.  She shook her head.  “We just wanted something new, you know?  Our last place was Nicole’s from before we got together, and it was a bit small.  The new place is bigger, and it’s both of ours.”

“Bigger?”

“We have cats,” Waverly said quickly, ignoring the look on Wynonna’s face.  “You know cats, they like to explore.  They were kind of tired of Nicole’s old place.”

Bette shrugged.  “I’m more of a dog person.”

“Wynonna’s allergic, ironically enough,” Waverly said.

Bette looked confused.  “Why is that ironic?”

“Dolls is a big dog-person,” Waverly said, smirking.

Now Wynonna kicked Waverly under the table; she did not appreciate clever werewolf humor at this particular moment.

“Oh?” Bette asked.  “Did he have to get rid of his dog, or something?”

“No, he’s hypoallergenic,” Wynonna said, earning an amused look from Waverly.  “The dog, I mean.  The dog that Xavier has.  Is hypoallergenic.”

“So, do you have any pets?” Waverly asked, controlling her laughter and turning to Bette.

“I used to have a dog,” Bette said.  “A mutt named Bobo.”

Waverly almost choked on her drink and Wynonna’s jaw dropped.

“Why, uh, why Bobo?” Wynonna asked.

“Bit of a unique name, don’t you think?” Waverly added, exchanging a look with Wynonna.

Bette shrugged, noticing the look between the sisters.  “I must’ve got him right after I had my memory erased.  Why?  Does the name mean something to you?”

They had explained what happened to Willa, but only in the loosest terms – she got taken, she got her memory erased by the same person who erased Bette’s memory, and she then got taken an brainwashed by another revenant.  Then Wynonna killed them both.  That was the basic explanation.  They didn’t use names, they didn’t use anything too specific, both to not complicate the story and also to not reveal too much to Bette.

Since that first time they explained it all to Bette, they never really talked about it again.  Bette accepted it and asked all the questions she had then, but she didn’t have many.  It had been too painful to hear all the details, so she was okay with hearing the minimum facts.

Waverly nodded.  “Bobo Del Rey took Willa.  He conspired with Constance Clootie, the witch with the pink car, to make a deal with Daddy and take him and Willa.”

“And he must’ve helped Constance with you,” Wynonna said.  “God, of course he got you to name your dog after him, that manipulative f-.”

Waverly cleared her throat.

“He had an obsession with the Earp women,” Waverly continued.  “He took Willa, he basically stalked me when I was little.  He tried to get everyone to kill Wynonna.”

“That’s not too different from other parties in this town, way back when,” Wynonna said though, to which Waverly nodded in agreement.

Bette looked shocked by all this information, and by how nonchalant Wynonna and Waverly were with it all.

**-WE-**

“Maybe we threw her in the deep end too much,” Waverly said, at Black Badge later that day.

“There isn’t really a gentle lead-in to ‘you named your dog after the demon from hell that stalked you and your three kids,’” Wynonna countered.  “She’s just worried.  At least it shows that she cares?”

“Or she’s freaked out by us,” Waverly said.

Wynonna stopped what she was doing and looked up at her.

“I know, I know,” Waverly said.  “Boo, pessimism.  I’ll control it.”

“Thank you.”

“Speaking of controlling things,” Waverly said, purposefully working and not looking at Wynonna.  “Smooth move, there, almost letting the cat out of the bag.”

“You mean, the cats that apparently need that big ol' house you live in?”

Waverly looked up at her.  “Come on, Wynonna.  That wasn’t cool.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Wynonna said.  “It was an accident, though.  I mean, it’s strange that you haven’t told her.”

“We haven’t asked her to stay yet,” Waverly said.  “I’m not telling her until after she decides to stay.”

“And if she doesn’t decide to stay?” Wynonna asked.  “You’re not going to tell her that she’s going to have a grandkid?”

“That is not fair.”

Wynonna shrugged.  “Doesn’t she deserve to know?”

“Clearly, I don’t think so.”  Wynonna looked taken aback.  “Look, it’s only an issue if she doesn’t decide to stay, right?  I really think if we ask her she’ll at least consider it.  I don’t think she wants out of our lives forever again.”

“So you should just tell her.”

“Or, I can wait until we know for sure,” Waverly said.  “And not jump the gun.”

“Wouldn’t telling her make her want to stay more?” Wynonna asked.  “Is that not sort of the goal here?”

“I want her to want to stick around for us,” Waverly said.  “I want her to want to fix things with us before starting with a blank slate.”

“Blank slate?” Wynonna asked.  “That’s a unique name.  Did Nicole sign off on that?”

Waverly rolled her eyes.  “So, when we see her tomorrow, we’ll ask her about the apartment?”

Wynonna nodded.  “Yep.  But who knows, she may want to stay in that spacious, cat-filled house of yours.”

Waverly shook her head, getting back to work.  “You’re a pain in the ass.”

**-WE-**

The next day, they hung out at Wynonna’s house.  Nicole and Dolls were there, too.  Bette had met them on her first day back in town but hadn’t really seen them since then.  They thought it might be nice to have them together then.

“So, Deputy Marshal Dolls,” Bette said.  “I hear that this is a very dangerous line of you work you’ve got these girls involved in.”

“Please, ma’am, call me Xavier,” Dolls said.  Wynonna gave him a very amused look, which he ignored.  “But, yes, and I must say, they are two of the best that I’ve ever worked with.  Wynonna’s got these incredible instincts, and she’s hands down one of the best hand-to-hand fighters I’ve worked with.  And Waverly, she’s on par with any database we have access to.”

“What a way with words,” Wynonna joked.

“And how did you get into the demon hunting business?” Bette asked, sounding a bit forced when she described the line of work.

“Probably the same way most people do,” Dolls began.  “Accidentally.  I was a Ranger in the army, then came across some supernatural affairs when I was overseas.  It ended up being the right fit.”

Bette nodded, thinking.  She still looked uncomfortable with all of this.  As Wynonna and Waverly knew all too well, there was a difference between knowing about the curse and actually experiencing and seeing it.

“What about you, Officer Haught?” Bette asked.  “How did you come to get involved in all this?”

“Please, call me Nicole, and I started out as just a cop, ma’am,” Nicole said.  She glanced at Waverly, who was a lot more comfortable now with Bette speaking to Nicole.  “I was a rookie, I got a job here in Purgatory, and the rest is history.  I worked a few cases that seemed out of the ordinary, and finally got let in on the big secret.”

“And that’s how you met Waverly?” Bette asked.

“Yeah,” Nicole said, both her and Waverly blushing the slightest bit.  “Sort of.  I was an officer at the time, but I met her at Shorty’s, where she was working at the time.”

“Don’t you want to tell the story?” Wynonna feigned sincere interest, knowing that Waverly and Nicole would get that she was teasing them.

“Nope,” Waverly said.  “That’s the story.  She came in and introduced herself and nothing else happened.”

“Yeah, nothing happened for a while,” Nicole said.  “Then Waverly came to her senses and finally asked me out.”

Waverly was blushing hard now.  “And the rest is history.  How about you, Wynonna?  How did you get involved with Xavier here?”

“Remember when Waverly mentioned that Bobo got the whole town to try to kill me at a party?” Wynonna said.  “There’s nothing quite like a near-death experience to make you think that dating your boss is a good idea.”

“Well, he seems like a good guy,” Bette said.  “Nicole, you as well.  You seem wonderful.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Dolls said.

“Yes, thank you,” Nicole said.  “Your daughters are extraordinary people.”

“Yes, that’s what I’ve been hearing.”

**-WE-**

Nicole and Dolls did dishes so that the Earps could talk.

“Do you know where Waverly got her sweater?” Dolls asked as he handed Nicole a dish to dry off.  “I have one that looks just like it.”

“Nope, no idea,” Nicole lied, glint in her eye, knowing full well where Waverly got that sweater.

Meanwhile, in the other room, the Earps sat around, chatting and drinking tea.

“I’m happy that you two are happy,” Bette said.

“Yeah?” Wynonna asked, with almost childlike hopefulness.  “You are?”

Bette nodded.  “Yes.  It worries me that you two do such dangerous jobs, but I’m glad you have people that care about you and protect you.”

“Thanks,” Wynonna said, not knowing what to say.  “I guess.”

There was a bit of an awkward pause, then Waverly spoke up.

“So, Bette, we were thinking,” Waverly said.  She looked over to Wynonna, who gave her an encouraging nod.  “That we know that you work in Calgary, but it might be nice if you had a place here.”

“The cost of living around here is hella cheap,” Wynonna said.  “And, obviously, we can look after your place while you’re in Calgary.  But it might be nice to be around here and not living out of a hotel, you know?”

“Wow,” Bette began.  “I don’t know what to say.”

“I know, it’s a big decision,” Wynonna said.  “But, I mean, Calgary is a bit of a hike.  And, you shouldn’t have to stay in a hotel every time you’re here.  Hell, you could retire here.  And we can chip in, if you need us to.  It’s not very fair for us to just ask you to get a place here when you already have a perfectly good place in Calgary.”

Waverly watched this interaction, sipping her tea.

“You girls could come visit me in Calgary-.”

Suddenly, there was a _bang!_ from the kitchen.  They all turned to look over and Waverly, startled with her tea in hand, accidently spilled it down her (Dolls’) sweater.

“Shit!”

Wynonna and Bette turned back to Waverly.

“Shit, Waves,” Wynonna said, reaching for a towel or a napkin or something.  “Here.”

Waverly took it, dabbing gently at her shirt.  A lot of it had gotten on her clothes but some got on her neck, too.

“Ah, shit, that is hot.”

Nicole had been the one to drop a pot she was washing loudly in the sink, so she came out into the other room to calm them down.  Instead, she saw Waverly in pain.

“Shit, Wave, are you alright?”  She rushed to her side.  She called behind her.  “Dolls, get a cold wet towel!”

“Waves, take the sweater off,” Wynonna said.

Nicole reached down to help her get it off, but Waverly stopped her for a moment.  Then, Waverly took a breath and took it off.  She was wearing a t-shirt under it, that wasn’t what she was concerned about.

Dolls came back with the towel, and Nicole took it and put it on Waverly’s neck and chest, where the tea had spilled.  Her skin was hot and already pink.

“Looks like some first degree burns, but you’ll be fine,” Nicole said.

“My hero,” Waverly muttered appreciatively, taking the towel and wiping herself off.  “Thank you.”

“What happened?” Wynonna asked.

“I was washing a pot,” Nicole said.  “The handle was slippery and I dropped it.  I’m sorry to startle you guys.”

“It’s fine,” Waverly said.  “Wynonna, do you have a shirt I could borrow?  This one is wet, too.”

“Yup,” Wynonna said.  “Come on upstairs.”

Waverly stood and Bette was in full view of her, so Waverly couldn’t really hide anymore.

She cleared her throat, standing there a bit awkwardly, knowing she had to speak but having a little trouble getting the words out.

“So,” she began.  “I’m pregnant.”

Bette nodded.  “I can see that.”

Waverly opened her mouth but no words came out.  She shut it, and nodded.  She turned and followed Wynonna to her room.

Which left Nicole, Dolls, and Bette standing in the room.

“That is my sweater, isn’t it?” Dolls asked, picking up and looking at it.

**-WE-**

They decided to about call it a night after that.  Wynonna and Waverly stood in the doorway, saying their goodbyes to Bette.

“So, we both have pretty full days at work tomorrow but we can see you the day after?” Wynonna asked.

“Sounds good,” Bette said.

Waverly nodded in agreement.  “I think it’s about time we did one of these at my place.  We’re starting to think about how to decorate the nursery, you two could come help, if you want.”

“You just don’t want to paint it yourself, do you?” Wynonna asked, elbowing her little sister.

Waverly shrugged.  “Okay, yes, but there are also some things that Nicole and I don’t see eye-to-eye on and need a tiebreaker for.”

“Day after tomorrow sounds good,” Bette said.  She bowed out of the doorway a little bit.  “I should get going, though.”

“Yeah, of course, it’s getting late,” Wynonna said.  She gave Bette a hug.  “See you then.”

Bette turned to Waverly and opened for a hug, but Waverly stopped her.

“I’ll walk you to your car.”

So, Waverly and Bette walked out in silence for a bit, before Waverly spoke.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Waverly said.  “I was going to, I promise.  It’s just, it’s really personal and really important to me.  I’m pretty protective about it.  It took me forever to tell Wynonna,” she laughed nervously.

“And you still don’t trust me,” Bette said.

“No,” Waverly protested, though they both could tell that she didn’t entirely mean it.  “I mean, we asked you to stay.  We want you around.  We want you involved.”

Bette sort of nodded, but didn’t speak.

So, Waverly decided to continue.

“Also, I have something else I need to ask you.”

“Okay.”

“Who is my father?” Waverly asked.  It was dark, but she could see Bette stiffen.  “I know Ward wasn’t my father.  I did a DNA test against Wynonna, we’re only half-sisters.  I just want to know.  I mean, if you don’t know or don’t remember or something, that’s fine.  At least that’s an answer.”

They had reached Bette’s car, and Bette stopped and turned to Waverly.

“I will tell you the next time I see you,” Bette said.

Waverly was disappointed, but didn’t let it show, much.  “Okay.”

Bette pulled her in for a hug.  “Congratulations, Waverly.”

Waverly smiled and leaned into the hug.  “Thank you.”

The hug ended and Waverly stepped back, giving Bette room to get into her car.  Waverly watched Bette pull out and drive away.

**-WE-**

Nicole got a call the next morning to the hotel that happened to be where Bette was staying.  Nicole sorted it out, filing a report for a guest who allegedly got their wallet stolen from their room.  The victim said their room was left open (“but only for a second, Officer!”) and another guest passing by must have taken it.  She called into the station to have the credit and debit cards tracked, then headed around the hotel to warn guests to keep their doors locked.

She made it to Bette’s room.

“Hey there,” she said warmly.

“Nicole, hi,” Bette said, shocked to see her.  “Is something wrong?  Is Waverly alright?”

“She’s fine, thanks,” Nicole said.  “A little burnt but it’ll be fine in a few days.  I’m actually here on business, there was a robbery in a room that was left unlocked, so I’m just reminding everyone to keep their doors shut and locked.”

Bette nodded.  “I will.”

Nicole couldn’t help but look past Bette into the room.  “I’ve only ever been here once or twice, but the rooms are definitely nicer than they were last time.”

“Yes, it’s a very nice hotel,” Bette said.  “By Purgatory standards.”

Nicole laughed, but then she saw packed bags on the bed.  She looked back at Bette and saw that she was fully dressed.

“Are you going somewhere?” Nicole asked.

Bette shook her head.  “No.”

“Did you find an apartment already?  Let me call Waverly or Wynonna, they can look at it with you or help you move your stuff-.”

“I said no, Nicole.”

Nicole paused.  She looked at Bette, she really looked at her.  “You’re leaving.”

It wasn’t a question, it wasn’t an accusation, it wasn’t said with any surprise.  It was a statement of fact.

Bette nodded once.  “Yes.”

“Why?”

Nicole was technically on duty, but she could turn cop-mode pretty much on and off.  She always made an effort to be aware of her surroundings and as observant as possible when she was on or off duty, but the way she dealt with people changed.  When she was dealing with someone doing something they probably shouldn’t, her demeanor changed entirely.  It could be frightening.

“They want me to stay,” Bette said.  “And I can’t.”

“Why not?” Nicole asked.  “They asked you to stay, or at least spend some time here.  They asked you, their mother, to spend time with them.  How is that not something you can do?”

Bette shook her head.  “If I stay now, I can never leave.”

“Yes, you can,” Nicole said.  “They know you have the job in Calgary, they aren’t asking you to stay here in Purgatory forever.  Just stay in their lives.”

“No.  It’s too much.”

“No?”  Nicole actually laughed, a bitter, breathy laugh that, again, was frightening.  “It’s the bare minimum.  Come on, say it.  Just say it.”

“I don’t want to stay in their lives,” Bette said.  “All of this, the demons, their work, their lives.  It’s too much.”

“So you’re going to leave without a word to them?” Nicole asked.  “Without an explanation, without a goodbye?”

“I said goodbye to them last night.”  Bette’s voice was strained.  She did not want to have this conversation.

“Yeah, but you kept to yourself that it was goodbye forever,” Nicole said.  “They thought it was just for a couple days.”

“Their lives are…not something I can be a part of.”

Nicole actually took a step back at that one.  “You know, this is why Waverly didn’t tell you she was pregnant.  This is why Wynonna never invited you to stay at the homestead.  For twenty-five years, they were so terrified of this, exactly this that you’re doing, that you’d decide you didn’t want them.  But they ignored it, and they tried with you anyway.  They _tried_ to be the kind of people that you would want to be there for, and they _tried_ to be themselves, and none of that was enough for you.  You’re leaving them, again.”

“Don’t tell them I’ve left for a little while,” Bette requested.  “I don’t want them coming after me.”

“They won’t.”

That statement hung in the air for a while, and then Nicole spoke again.

She shook her head.  “You’re a coward.  I get it, we all get it why you left the first time, but this?  You’re leaving them because you don’t want to do the work of actually knowing them.  You never wanted to be in their lives.  You just wanted to try and tell yourself that that was enough.”

Bette was going to respond when a voice came from down the hallway.

“Officer Haught?”

Nicole looked down the hall, face full of anger and disappointment, and saw the front desk clerk asking for her.  She calmed herself down, needing to be professional and not wanting to offend the hotel employee.

She turned back to Bette.

“You will never see your grandchild. They’ll grow up like Waverly and Wynonna and Willa knowing that you didn’t want them.  I hope you can live with that.”

She left Bette standing in the doorway and went to the hotel employee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's only one more chapter after this!! Ahhhh!!!!  
> Also my personal headcanon is that Dolls' weird eye/drugs thing is a werewolf thing, but I've heard talk about it being a lizard thing. What do you guys think?  
> Also, of course, please let me know what you think of that ending! Did you see it coming? What do you think will happen next?


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've got a bit more colorful language in this one, so heads up if you're not into f-bombs.

When Nicole got back to the station, she immediately went to Black Badge.

“Where are Waverly and Wynonna?” she asked, not even bothering to knock.

Dolls looked up at her.  “They went to lunch.”  He looked at his watch.  “They should be back soon.  Why?  What’s wrong?”

“Bette left.”

“For good?”

Nicole nodded.  “Seems like.”

“Their mother left them again?” Doc asked. 

Dolls put a hand to his forehead.  “Shit.”

Nicole filled him in on everything - how she got a call to the hotel, how Bette was packed and about to leave, how Nicole spoke to her.

“How are we going to tell them?” Nicole asked.  “We know now.  We can’t just let them find out tomorrow when she doesn’t meet them.”

“And you’re on duty now, right?” Dolls asked, to which Nicole nodded.  “I’ll send Waverly in to you when she gets here.”

“Thank you.”

**-WE-**

Nicole’s day suddenly got very busy, because of course it did.  She got so many calls that she was out of the office until her shift ended, and then some.  She texted Dolls when she got the first call, with the promise to text when she was back in the office and the demand to be notified when Waverly got back.

So, when Wynonna and Waverly got back from lunch, Nicole wasn’t around.

When Wynonna and Waverly walked in, two strange things happened: Doc took his hat off and Dolls greeted them first.

“What’s going on?” Wynonna asked.

“I’m sorry?” Dolls asked.

Wynonna nodded toward Doc.  “He took his hat off, which he only ever does at bad news.  And you,” she said, nodding toward Dolls “Only greet us first when you have bad news you want to get out of the way.  So, what is it?  Demon outbreak at Shorty’s?  Portal to hell opened in the town square?  Evil mermaids?”

“No,” Dolls answered simply, which only furthered Wynonna and Waverly’s unease.

“Dude, just say it.”

Dolls looked right at Wynonna, holding eye contact.  “Bette left.”

“What do you mean, ‘left’?” Wynonna asked.  She turned to Waverly.  “Did you know about this?”

Waverly shook her head.  She crossed her arms and tilted her head at Dolls, like she wasn’t quite believing what she was hearing.

“Nicole got a call to the hotel Bette was staying in,” Dolls explained.  “She ran into Bette and saw that she was leaving.  She tried to stop her but Bette wasn’t having it.”

“I don’t get it, where did she go?” Wynonna asked.

“I don’t know, she didn’t say.”

“But, why, though?  Why would she go-?”

“Shit, Wynonna, it doesn’t matter why,” Waverly snapped.  “She left again.  She…she fucking left.”

Wynonna turned to Waverly with a heartbroken expression.

Waverly looked at Dolls, though, making a point not to make eye contact with Wynonna.  She wasn’t sure either of them could handle it.

“Is Nicole here?”

Dolls shook his head.  “No.  She got a call and she couldn’t get out of it.”

Waverly nodded.  “I’m going to go for a walk.”  She turned and left the room.

The other three people in the room all sort of exchanged a look.

“Allow me to escort you, Waverly,” Doc said.  She didn’t say no or even really look at him, so he took that to mean that it was alright for him to follow her.

“She left?” Wynonna asked.  She crossed the room, standing on the side of the table opposite Dolls’ side.  She put her hands on the table and leaned on it, holding herself up.

Dolls caught sight of her and she looked so…tired.  That was the predominant expression.  There was anger there, too, and betrayal and disappointment.  But overall, she looked exhausted.

“I’m sorry,” Dolls said.

“Don’t be, it’s not your fault,” she said.  She smacked the table and stood.  She was too worked up to stand still.  She was so tired but had so much energy now that she needed to release.

“Still,” Dolls said.

“She wasn’t going to say anything?” Wynonna asked.  “Or see us again?  She just left.  Shit, I don’t even have her phone number.  I don’t know anything about her at all.”

“If you want me to find her, I can.”

“I know,” Wynonna said.  She ran a hand through her hair.  “Thanks, but she apparently doesn’t want to be found.”

Dolls watched her as she paced.  He knew she needed to just let it out, and he needed to be there while she did it.  He needed to be there and just be present, speaking, admittedly sparingly, but when needed and being still, if only to balance her out.

He watched as she kicked a chair across the room.

“God damn it!” she yelled.  “Why the hell did she come back in the first place?  Why bother coming back and dropping in on us if she had no intention to stay?”

“It’s not your fault, you know,” Dolls said.  “She never planned on staying, there was nothing you could do.”

“That seems to be a recurring theme.”

Dolls heart broke at that.

“I used to think I was like her, you know?” Wynonna said.  “When you’re a kid, you think you’re like your parents in some way.  I didn’t want to be anything like Daddy, so I thought I was like her, but only in the good ways.  I ignored the bad ways.  Then, I got older and realized that I ran from everything, just like her.  I ran from here, I ran from my mistakes, I ran from Waverly and Gus and Curtis.  God, we never told Gus that she was back.”

“She didn’t come here for Gus.”

Wynonna shook her head, she sniffled.  The tears were starting to come and she couldn’t stop them.

“She’s not okay, I get it,” Wynonna said.  “She went through so much with what Daddy did and everything that happened when she was gone.  I know, on some level, that she couldn’t stay.  I think I always knew, and Waverly always knew.”

“Knowing doesn’t make it suck any less.”

Wynonna shook her head.

Dolls walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her.

“I’m so sorry,” he said.  He kissed her forehead and held her as she cried.  “I’m sorry, Wynonna.”

**-WE-**

“My, my, you do move mighty fast for someone in your condition,” Doc said, only catching up to Waverly on the street.

She looked at him but didn’t speak.

“Would it serve you better if I spoke or just walked with you in silence?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, let’s try them both,” Doc said.  “I’m inclined to start the spoken version first.  How are you?”

Waverly sighed.  “From the moment she walked back into the homestead, I was preparing myself for this.  And then I let myself think that she was really going to stick around, and I stopped being ready for it.  It was stupid.”

“It is not stupid to trust, Waverly,” Doc said.  He almost continued, but stopped himself.  “I was going to say that it is especially not stupid to trust your own kin, but that rule may not apply to this particular family.”

Waverly looked at him out of the corner of her eye.  “Yeah, probably not.”

“Still, _bonum est iniurias oblivisci._ Don't stop trusting people.  I've been down that road before and it is not safe or comfortable passage.”

“It is good to forget wrongs,” Waverly translated.  “I forget sometimes that you know Latin.”

“ _Interdum stultus bene loquitur_.”

“You’re not a fool, Doc.”

“Neither are you, Waverly.”

“ _Mundus vult decipi_ ,” Waverly said.  “I don’t know, maybe I wanted to be wrong.  Maybe I wanted so much to feel like she wanted to stay that I ignored how obviously she didn’t want us.  I thought I was being careful but I was being…brash.”

“There is hardly a proper way to welcome back someone who left you twenty-five years ago, in your youth,” Doc said.  “This is not your fault, Waverly.”

“How can she not want to stay?” Waverly asked.  “What is so wrong with me and Wynonna and our lives that she can’t possibly consider even having a tiny part in them?”

“I’ll wager that the problem lies more with her than with you,” Doc said.  “And you and Wynonna are just the unfortunate victims of fate.”

“I’m getting pretty tired of fate.”

Doc nodded in agreement.

“I’m so pissed, Doc,” Waverly said.  “I opened up, I told her about my life.  I showed her the things that are most important to me and she said no thanks.”

“Surely that’s better than her saying yes and not meaning it,” Doc said.

Waverly slowed and turned toward him.  “Thank you,” she began.  “But I think I need to go walk around on my own for a bit.”

“Waverly…”

“I’m fine, I promise,” Waverly said.  She gave him a quick hug.  “Thank you.”

He watched her walk away.

**-WE-**

Waverly didn’t go back to Black Badge.  She wandered for a while, but after that she didn’t know what to do with herself.  She found herself at Shorty’s, which was now human-owned and revenant-free.

“Thought I might find you here,” she said, sidling up next to Wynonna who was sat at the bar.

“Hey,” Wynonna said warmly.  She nodded at the bartender.  “Another, please.”

Waverly looked concerned but decided to deal with it a bit later.

“How are you doing?” Wynonna asked.

“How are you doing?” Waverly replied.

Wynonna shrugged, accepting that maybe they didn’t need to talk about it with each other.

The bartender placed the drink identical to Wynonna’s in front of Waverly.  It was clear and on ice.

Waverly eyed it and Wynonna a bit cautiously, then took a sip.

“Water?” she asked, a bit surprised and a bit amused.

Wynonna nodded.  “I think it’s time I stopped drinking.”

Waverly’s eyebrows shot up, but then she nodded.  “Okay.  Cheers, then,” she said, touching her glass to Wynonna’s.

They sat quietly for a little while, drinking and looking at the bar.

"I'm sorry Bette left," Waverly said.  "I know you wanted her to stay."

Wynonna nodded.  "I'm sorry she didn't want to stay."

**-WE-**

Waverly was still up when Nicole got home.  She was sat on the living room floor, open romance novel that she was barely reading in one hand, and the other hand playing with the cats.

“Hey,” Nicole said, sadness and support with a hint of amusement in her voice.  “I brought dinner.”

“Thanks,” Waverly said.  She eyed the three bags Nicole was carrying.  “All that is dinner?”

“No, I also brought a surprise.  Now or later?”

“Now.”

Nicole held up a finger, motioning for Waverly to wait for a minute.  She went into the kitchen and put the food down, then came back with a couple bags.  She set them on the floor, out of Waverly’s reach but in her line of vision, then went into the other room.  She came back with Waverly’s jacket and shoes.

“So, what is this?” Waverly asked.

“You’ll see,” Nicole said, giving Waverly a hand to help her off the floor.  She grabbed the bags while Waverly put on her shoes and coat.

Nicole led Waverly outside.  They stopped so Nicole could turn on the outside light.

“Nicole, I appreciate this, but I don’t really want to go anywhere.”

“We’re going right here,” Nicole said.

They had a little porch on the back of their house, and a fence around their yard.  They were pretty secluded, but still within the larger neighborhood.

“To the backyard?”

Nicole nodded.  She put the bags on the porch railing and opened them for Waverly to see.  They were full of plates and dishes.

“When I was in high school,” Nicole began.  “I came out to my best friend.  We were best friends our whole lives and I knew I was gay for basically my whole life, but it took a while to tell my friends.  I told her and she said she was fine with it, but she just started to look at me differently.  She would hang out with me less and she’d refuse to acknowledge my being gay.  When I tried to talk about girls, she’d change the subject.  She wouldn’t call girls I dated my ‘girlfriends’ and she would still say closed-minded shit.  So, I ended our twelve-year friendship.”

“I didn’t know any of this,” Waverly said.

“It’s not exactly my favorite childhood memory,” Nicole joked.  “Anyway, I remember the last time I talked to her and told her that if she couldn’t at least try to accept or even acknowledge who I was, we couldn’t be friends.  I came home and I was _so_ pissed.  I was out to my family and I told them what happened and they didn’t really know what to do.  Then, my dad went out and hit up all the thrift stores in town and basically bought out their supplies of cheap, fragile dishes.”

“Ah,” Waverly said, looking over at the bags.

“He told me that he maybe couldn’t understand what I was going through, since he’d never been in that position,” Nicole said.  “But he understood that I was angry, and there were ways he could help me with that.”

“So he bought you a bunch of plates.”

“And helped me smash them in the backyard.”

Waverly looked back at Nicole and saw that she was grinning.

“You bought all these plates so I could smash them in the backyard?”

Nicole nodded, her expression supportive of Waverly, excited for the endeavor, and a bit proud of herself.  “Yep.  Wave, I have no idea what this feels like and honestly I kind of hope that I never do.  But I’ll listen to you whenever you want to talk about it.  And until then, I can help you get out your anger in other ways.”

Waverly looked down.  “I’m so tired of being angry.”

“Then let it out.”

Waverly looked up again and saw Nicole holding a plate out to her.

“Come on,” Nicole said.  “I notified the station, told them that there might be noise complaints coming from here.  Nedley gave us a couple hours until we have to be quiet.  So, until then…”

“I can smash all these plates.”

Nicole nodded, grin returning to her face.

“You’re like a four year old with a badge, you know that?”

Nicole shrugged.  “Try it.  It really helps.”

Waverly, a bit hesitantly, took the plate from Nicole.

“This is a nice plate.”

“Only the best for you, Wave.”

“I asked her who my father was, before she left last night,” Waverly said.  “She said she’d answer the next time she saw me.”

Waverly looked at the plate for one last second, then threw it, hard, down, so that it landed with a very satisfying _crash!_ at the bottom of the porch steps.

“I finally told her about the baby, and I told her we wanted her around and she still left.”

Another plate crashed to the ground.

“Wynonna grew up with everyone giving up on her and writing her off, and then Bette showed up and gave Wynonna hope, then just pulled it out from under her.”

A third plate shattered against the ground.

“We’re going to make a mess,” she said, turning to Nicole, a grin growing on her face.

“I’m going to clean it up first thing in the morning, promise.”  She held out another plate to Waverly.

Waverly let her grin settle in on her face.  She took the plate and kissed Nicole.

“Thank you,” she said.  “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

**-WE-**

Wynonna was sitting with Dolls, head on his shoulder and his arm around her shoulders, hand playing with her long hair.

“What’s on your mind, Earp?”

Wynonna exhaled sharply.  “I don’t even know.  It’s been a clusterfuck of a day.”

“That seems like an understatement.”  He leaned over and kissed the top of her head.

“I’m not the marriage or kids type,” she said, rather abruptly.

“Okay.”

“I’m just letting you know,” Wynonna said.

“I do know,” Dolls said.  “And I’m not the marriage and kids type, either.  I like how we are.”

“I do, too,” Wynonna said.  “But I…”  She cut herself off, readjusting herself.  “I really don’t want to lose anyone else..”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Dolls said.  “Wynonna, I love you.  I’m here, no matter what.  I may not be the marriage type but that doesn’t mean I have any plans on leaving.”

Wynonna leaned on him more, letting herself get comfortable being as close to him as possible.  “I love you, too.”

Dolls smiled, and that sight had become one of Wynonna’s favorites.

“When all this is done,” Dolls said.  “Do you want to come down to Arizona?  I’m overdue for a visit.”

Wynonna had heard a lot about Dolls family but she’d never met them in person.  They had skyped, talked on the phone, sent holiday cards, all of it  But she’d never been to where Dolls grew up – it was outside the triangle.  His family had never been to Purgatory, he wasn’t allowed to tell them exactly where he was living.  They sent mail to his Marshal office, which he’d pick up when he had to go report to his bosses.

Wynonna nodded.  “I’d like that.”

She was comfortable with that.  She didn’t care for marriage, she didn’t want kids.  She wanted to know Dolls, to know his family, to know the people and places that made him who he was.  With the curse still on, she was basically trapped in the Ghost River Triangle.  She always figured that the first chance she got, she’d run away back to Europe, maybe, or hitch a ride with Doc as far south as she could get.

But she was starting to feel like she didn’t want to run away.  She wanted to run to something, and still be able to come home.

**-WE-**

“This is it, huh?” Wynonna asked, walking slowly around the nursery in Waverly’s house.  “And these colors, we’re past changing them?”

Waverly rolled her eyes.  It was over a month after Bette left and Nicole’s family had been in town the previous weekend to work on the nursery.  Wynonna had come out to dinner with them, once, but didn’t stick around to help with the nursery.

“It looks great, you guys,” Dolls said.

“Yes, the green is a mighty fine color,” Doc added, looking around.  “And this dresser you’ve bought is of high quality, though that strange Swedish store you bought it at was…an experience.”

Wynonna turned to Waverly and Nicole.  “You brought Doc to Ikea and didn’t let me come?”

Waverly shrugged.  “I mean, if you like Ikea that much, you can put together the changing table that Nicole’s mom bought us.”

“Only if that can be my only interaction with the changing table,” Wynonna countered.  “Although, if we’re doing gifts…”

She popped into the hallway and came back with a bag, which she handed to Waverly.

“Wynonna, you shouldn’t have.”

“I know you’re just saying that, but I feel like once you open it you may actually believe it.”

Waverly and Nicole exchanged a look then went into the bag.  Waverly pulled out a little sheriff’s uniform outfit.

“You know me, all about style over practicality,” Wynonna said.  “Hence all the leather pants I end up in.  I saw this the other day and, I don’t know.  If any kid could pull of wearing a sheriff’s costume at any time of the year, it’d be yours.”

Nicole was smiling wide.  “It’s adorable.  Thank you.”

“There’s something else,” Wynonna said, eyes flicking toward Waverly.

Waverly reached into the bag and pulled out a teddy bear.  Not just any bear, though, but the one she had as a child – Mr. Plumpkins.

“I thought this was lost,” she breathed.

“Yeah, so did I,” Wynonna said.  “But I did some digging and found it.  And washed it, because I had to do actual digging.  I have no idea how that thing ended up outside.”

“Thank you,” Waverly said, giving Wynonna a tight hug.  “I actually have something for you,” she said, wiping the stray tear that escaped her eye.

“Yeah?” Wynonna asked.

Waverly nodded and led her into the room that functioned as an office or a study.  It held all of Waverly’s research and papers and presentations.

She opened a file in her large, antique desk and handed it to Wynonna.

“I know you put down the last revenant last week,” Waverly said.  “And there’s still a ritual we need to do to end the curse for good.  This is it.”

“You found it?” Wynonna asked, slowly opening the file and looking through it.

Waverly nodded.  “Yep.  We can do it later today, if you want.  Nicole and I went out and bought everything we’d need.  Related to that, now is not a good time to go shopping if you need candles, because we bought basically the town’s whole supply.”

Wynonna let out a little laugh.  “Wow.  We’re really going to be free of this shit.”

Waverly nodded.  “Yup.  Basically, you just stand still and chant some Latin while surrounded by candles.  It’s a surprisingly simple procedure.”

“Kind of a letdown,” Wynonna mumbled, still looking in awe at the file.  “Do we need to do anything to Peacemaker?”

Waverly shook her head.  “You’re cursed, not the gun.  The gun reacts to you.  Once the curse is broken, I doubt it’ll even work anymore.”

“You should have it,” Wynonna said, after a pause.  She finally looked up at Waverly.

“You want me to have Peacemaker?”

Wynonna nodded.  “If anyone deserves it, it’s you.  You were the only one who ever deserved it.”

“I don’t want it,” Waverly said, tone conveying that this was the first time she had ever said or thought that, but it was still very true.

“Yeah?” Wynonna asked.  “Okay.  I think I have an idea for it.”

**-WE-**

“Did you check for any more immortal, mustached gunslingers down there?” Waverly asked.

Wynonna shook her head, smirking as she and Waverly stood at the wall of the well on the homestead property.  “Hell, whoever finds it should have it.  It’s still worth a crapload of money.”

“It’s a pity to throw it down the well, then.”

Wynonna shrugged.  “At least we know now that once we put it down there, it’ll stay down there.  They all will.”

She and Waverly exchanged one last look, all big eyes and slight smiles and even slighter nervous and fear.

“You ready?” Waverly asked.

Wynonna nodded.  “Yeah, I am, baby girl.”

She took Peacemaker out of its holster for the last time, and threw it down the well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it, you guys. The last chapter. A huge thank you to everyone that's read and commented and left kudos and talked about this fic. I hope you all loved this story as much as I did. Thank you :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is set after Bette leaves but before the one-month time jump at the end of the last chapter!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really love this story and have always wanted to revisit it somehow, so here's a short little addition to this world, featuring Gus. Also, full disclosure, I distinctly remember when I was writing this getting to, like, chapter four or five and being like "oh shit, Gus would probably have played a bigger role in some way," so here's the Gus presence we all deserve. I hope we see her in season 2 because I think Gus is great and has really interesting dynamics with the Earp girls.
> 
> Anyway, here we go!

Wynonna and Waverly stood on Gus's porch, both shifting a bit nervously after Waverly knocked on the door.

"We should've told her sooner," Waverly said in a hushed tone to her sister.

Wynonna glanced at her.  "Bette only left a few days ago."

"We should've told her when she was here!"

"I kind of assumed Bette found her on her own," Wynonna said.  "Didn't you?"

"I did," Waverly admitted.  She sighed.  "We should've made sure.  She was Gus's sister."

Wynonna shrugged.  "Well, better late than never, eh?"

Waverly gave her a look but didn't answer, as Gus finally opened the door.

**-WE-**

"So," Gus said as the Earp sisters sat at her dining room table.  "Drinks?  I know I've got whiskey, but having both of you here at once seems like a special occasion so I can scrounge up some wine."

"No, thanks," Wynonna said, and Gus's eyebrow went up, but she didn't say anything.

"Yeah, me neither, thanks," Waverly said.

"Okay," Gus said, joining them at the table.  "So, what's the occasion?"

Wynonna and Waverly exchanged a look.  It dawned on them that they didn't have a plan.  They agreed that they should go see Gus and talk to her about it, but they didn't plan beyond that in terms of who should say what, how it should be said, and all that.

Gus saw them look nervously and tentatively at each other.

"Now, you two girls didn't come out here just to tell me about your mother coming back, did you?"

They exchanged a look again.

"You knew?" Wynonna sputtered.

Gus nodded.

"She saw you?" Waverly asked.

Gus shook her head.  "A friend of mine saw her in town.  I figured that if she wanted to see me, she would."

"But she didn't?" Wynonna asked.

Gus shook her head again.

"Sorry," Wynonna followed up.

Gus shrugged.  "She didn't come for me."

There was a short silence among them.  Wynonna and Waverly weren't sure what to say after that but they wanted to stay.

"Did she leave?"

Wynonna nodded.  "Yeah, a couple days ago."

"I'm sorry, girls."

"It's not your fault," Waverly said, wanting to say something.

"I know, but, you deserve better," Gus said.  "Both of you."

There was another pause as they processed that.

"You too," Wynonna offered.  She meant it, but it was still awkward to say.  Her relationship with Gus was better than it ever was, but they were more civil than they were close.

"Why'd she leave this time?"

Waverly laughed a bit, a bitter chuckle.  "We asked her to stay."

Gus nodded knowingly.  "There's a lot here that's tough for her-."

"We know," Wynonna said, shooting a worried glance in Waverly's direction, but she seemed okay.  If Wynonna was being honest, she felt kind of okay herself.  The okay feeling came a lot sooner than she thought it would, but it didn't feel rushed.  It wasn't all there, not by a long shot, but she could see the light at the end of the tunnel.  "And we understand why she left in the first place, we always have."

Waverly nodded.  "Yeah, I think we just could've done without the rug pulled out from under us these past couple weeks."

"Well, you still have family," Gus said.  "You know that."

Both Wynonna and Waverly nodded.  "Yeah."

**-WE-**

"You don't, uh," Waverly said, helping Gus wash dishes later that night.  "You don't know who my father is, do you?"

Gus shook her head.  "I don't.  She never told me."

"You knew it wasn't Ward?"

"Everyone knew it wasn't Ward," Gus said.  "By then, they only spent time together when Bette tried to get Willa away from him for a minute."

Waverly nodded, took a deep breath.  She felt it, too.  She felt herself getting better, she knew she would be at one point.  It was just a matter of time.

"Was she happy ever?" Waverly asked, almost surprised to hear her voice.  She hadn't planned on asking that, it just came out.

"Yeah," Gus said.  "When you all were really little."

Waverly clenched her jaw.  They both knew that wasn't true; they both knew that Gus really meant that when Willa and Wynonna were little.

"And when she first met Ward, believe it or not," Gus said.  "Things were different then."

"Yeah, I imagine so, life might be a bit easier before you make a deal with the fur-coat-wearing devil."

"Ward was a bad man," Gus said, and it struck Waverly that Gus knew more about him, and about Bette, than she would ever know.  "And Bette..."

"We don't need to talk about her anymore."

"She tried," Gus finished.  "You said she got her memories erased, you said she tried to be here.  She came for back to see you all."

Waverly was uncomfortable with this conversation.  She wasn't sure what she felt about Bette, and she wasn't sure what Wynonna felt.  She knew the feelings were complicated, but she and Wynonna had an agreement not to talk about it.  Waverly wasn't sure she wanted to hear Gus talk about Bette in this way.

But, Waverly knew Gus maybe didn't have anyone else she could talk to who would get close to understanding.

"Yeah," Waverly managed, letting Gus know she could go on.

**-WE-**

"Well, thanks again, Gus," Wynonna said.  "This was nice."  She said it like she was admitting it.

"You're welcome here," Gus said.  "Believe it or not."

Wynonna laughed a bit.  "Okay, Gus."

"I mean it," Gus said.  Now she was talking like she was admitting something.  "I know what you've done for this town and these people and Waverly.  I know you've been telling the truth and trying to make things better here for most of your life, Wynonna."  She took a moment.  "I'm-."

"It's okay," Wynonna said, cutting her off.  She wasn't ready to hear Gus apologize and wasn't sure she'd ever be.  Knowing that Gus was sorry was enough.  "And, I know I wasn't the easiest on you..."

"It's okay," Gus said.  She laughed a bit.  The blue truck that Wynonna still drove was technically stolen from Gus.  

Wynonna smiled a bit, thinking of the trouble she'd caused in the brief time she lived with Gus, and most of their interactions thereafter.  She was glad to be at a point where she could think of it fondly, somewhat, and forgive.

"Alright, I'm going to go before this gets mushy," Wynonna said.  "Thank you for tonight."

"Thank you," Gus said.

Wynonna walked down Gus's porch and got into her truck, where Waverly was already in the passenger seat.

"You good?" Wynonna asked.

Waverly nodded, buckling up.

Wynonna nodded and started the engine, then pulled away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you followed this story when it first was posted, thanks for coming back! If this is your first time seeing it, I hope you enjoyed!!!
> 
> In other news, part of why I wanted to add to this is because I was thinking about rebooting it. I love exploring what would happen if their mom came back (whose name I've now learned is Wendy, idk where I got Bette) and I think with Wynonna having a kid, that'd be an interesting situation to explore. So, what do we think? Would that be something we're interested in? The characterization of Bette/Wendy would be very similar to this characterization but obviously the situation is different, so who know what would happen. :)
> 
> Also, one last note, I made a tumblr! https://forsomereason-lampshadez.tumblr.com/


End file.
